Flower: the Rather Reluctant Fifth Marauder
by BonesDon'tMelt
Summary: Serena Wendal never wanted to be a marauder. In fact, she never wanted to meet the marauders in the first place. But when you're extremely shy and afraid someone will find out your (admittedly pretty lame) secret at any moment, the universe doesn't really care what you think. Yes, it's an OC story, but give it a chance? Main focus not romance, but story and friendship. Hiatus- 2020
1. Chapter 1

AN: Yes this is an OC story, yes it will be centered around my OC, yes there is a better reason for her joining the marauders than _I want her to_ , no she will not be a central character in Harry Potter's story, yes she _will_ be part of his story, yes it will go that long, yes some things will change due to her presence because I think it's pretty boring to write the same plot as the books but most of the important stuff will still happen. For instance, **SPOILER** James and Lily still die because that is absolutely necessary for the storyline. Also, _if_ I ever save someone from dying, expect there to be consequences or at least a plausible reason set in motion by a previous changed event in-story.

This starts in her first year and on, but first year is boring so I'll only have two or three chapters on it. Also, starting in second year, there will be chapters that focus on the marauders, and maybe some other characters like Lily, Frank, Snape, etc if I'm feeling particularly willing to share the spotlight. And most of the important story-building stuff happens in the last years of Hogwarts and after, so that'll probably be the majority of the story.

* * *

A little blond girl, she couldn't have been more than eleven years old, looked around the station nervously. This was her first year; how to get onto the platform again? Oh, run through a wall. Yes, her dad was magic, but she didn't think he was crazy!

"Serena, don't worry. We'll be right behind you." Her mother, a tall brunette, smiled in reassurance. She smiled wanly back; she couldn't find the gumption to be excited yet. She hadn't had a good night's sleep for a while.

"Alright…" She said slowly, starting to shuffle forward. Intuitively, she knew this wouldn't work. But maybe the wall could sense fear… yes, it could sense fear and wouldn't let anyone that was nervous through. No, plenty of first years were nervous. But then how could some muggles get onto the platform and some not? Maybe it worked on belief? Then could she not get in? Wait, that didn't make sense either, seeing as she had just passed through without a problem… Anything magic can come through, and only Muggles who know? But how would the wall know-

"Serena, you're going to miss the train!" Her dad's laughing finally broke through her mental debate and she blinked in confusion for a couple moments before turning and hugging them. She resolved to let the magic doorway issue drop; she could go on about it forever.

"I'll miss you." She said quietly as they hugged her back.

"We will too, honey." Her dad smiled.

"Take care, and send us a lot of letters." Her mom added, tears pricking at her eyes as she hugged Serena closer to her.

"Mom, I need to get on the train." She said quietly.

"Oh, right." She said sheepishly, letting Serena go.

"I'll send a letter at least once a week." She smiled as she grabbed her trolley and headed towards the train.

* * *

"Excuse me, may I sit here?" Serena asked a little while later, opening the door to a compartment. Inside were three girls, two with brown hair and one with black.

"Oh, of course," smiled one of the brunettes. "I'm Alice."

"I'm Grace." Smiled the black haired one.

"Abigail." The second brunette said, turning her nose up snobbily.

"Serena Wendal. It's nice to meet you." She said quietly as she sat in the seat closest to the door.

"We were just talking about what houses we wanted to be in, Serena. Do you have a preference?" Alice asked with a smile. It was obvious to Serena that Alice was the nice, outgoing, friend-making one; Abigail was probably a pure blood, as she just had that better-than-you vibe; and Grace was nice, but shy.

Serena scolded herself, stopping that train of thought. She needed to stop analyzing everyone she met; that was one reason she had no friends.

"Well my father was in Gryffindor, but I think I would rather be in Ravenclaw or maybe Hufflepuff. That way I wouldn't have to be in the center of house rivalry." She said after a moment.

"I want to be in Gryffindor," Alice stated with a smile, "But Ravenclaw sounds good too."

"Hufflepuff sounds nice…" Grace said quietly, fiddling with the necklace that she was wearing. Abigail snorted as she said that.

"Hufflepuff is a house for duffers. The only place worth going is Gryffindor." Alice and Serena frowned at her and Grace looked at her lap, Serena could swear there were tears in the corner of her eyes.

"Hufflepuff is where loyal and hard working people go, actually. All Gryffindor has for qualifications is that they need to be brave; they could be brain dead and mean and still get in." Serena stated, pulling out a book and starting to read so she wouldn't have to look at whatever look she was sure Abigail was giving her at the moment. She flinched when her book was slapped to the ground as Abigail stalked out of the compartment and then just stared at her lap.

She already had an enemy. This was just her luck; her facts had gotten her in trouble once again, and she could already tell Abigail was going to be popular. All of Abigail's friends would hate her too. That was just wonderful. At least no one thought she was crazy yet, she just had to be more careful. But maybe everyone in the magical world could do that- no. Her father had been too surprised. He said he had never seen anything like it before.

"Thank you." The quiet voice snapped Serena out of her thoughts once more; she needed to get used to being around people. The voice was Grace, who was standing in front of her and offering her the fallen book: _Hogwarts a History_. It was a pretty interesting book, but the whole thing seemed a little too good to be true. Serena suspected that whoever wrote it only put in the better parts.

Wait- she was doing it again.

"Thank you." She said quietly, taking the book and not acknowledging the expression of gratitude that Grace had given her. She didn't know how to respond, and she didn't want to come off sounding like a big-headed prick so she just pretended not to hear. Pretty much the rest of the train ride was spent with Alice and Grace talking to each other, occasionally pulling Serena into the conversation even though she was perfectly content with just continuing to read. At the point when the trolley lady came and they each bought a few things; Serena only bought chocolate frogs and a few packs of Bertie Botts. She had made it her mission to memorize what beans were what color.

When the train finally stopped, Serena had gotten through the whole of _Hogwarts a History_ and started on the first year transfiguration book. She filed out of the train with everyone else, sticking with Grace and Alice for the simple fact that they were the only ones she knew wouldn't be hostile to her.

"FIRS' YEARS OV'R HERE!" Bellowed a gigantic voice. Alice and Grace looked at each other with wide eyes, but Serena just stared at the giant man. Her father had told her about him. That was Hagrid, the grounds keeper. He had been expelled from school for some reason, but Dumbledore had let him work on the grounds instead of sending him away. That made Serena think Dumbledore thought Hagrid was innocent (that was a mouthful).

"Come on Serena!" Alice said, yanking on her hand to get her moving and interrupting her train of thought.

"Coming." She said, walking with the two other girls towards the giant man. Giant was a good word to describe him. He wasn't like an actual giant, she had read about them, and he was much too small to be one. Of course he was also much too large to be a normal human. Could he be a half-giant? Or maybe not exactly half, but just have some giant in his ancestry. How would that work, if a human and a giant got married? It's like a mini Chihuahua and a-

"FOUR TO A BOAT!"

It was probably good that train of thought was stopped.

"Come on, Serena. There's one right here." Grace said, pulling Serena slightly forward as Alice led the way.

"Hey. I'm Alice. This is Grace, and that's Serena. What's your name?" Alice said to the lone boy in the boat.

"Matt." The boy said shortly, hands clasped so tightly on his robes that his knuckles were white. He was scared. Grace and Alice saw it too, but they didn't seem scared. Should she be scared? She wasn't really; maybe she would be when it came to the sorting. There were lots of stories about the sorting, but she didn't really believe any of them. One was that each of them had to fight a troll, which would take way too long first of all, and second, how would that determine houses? If they were going by stereotypes, then it would be pretty easy. Hufflepuffs would cower, Slytherins would try to sacrifice someone else (probably a Gryffindor), Ravenclaws would somehow magically know what spell to use, and Gryffindors would charge head-on at it. But that really wouldn't prove anything, and her dad always insisted that (despite being placed in Gryffindor) he would have high-tailed it if he ever met a troll in first year.

"Serena, you _need_ to stop zoning out like that, we're already at the castle!" Alice chided, pulling Serena to her feet and out of the boat. "You're name's too long. I'm gonna call you Sear, is that alright?"

"Sear?" Serena asked, but before she could inquire further, a stern-looking woman with grey hair pulled into a tight bun spoke up.

"Thank you Hagrid, I will take them from here. I am Professor McGonagall, head of Gryffindor house."

Serena glanced around and realized that she had once again zoned out, and they were now standing in front of a set of large double doors that probably led to the dining room.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup; a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting." After saying that, her eyes lingered specifically over four boys. Two had black hair, one short one long, who looked like they had been rough-housing. The one with sandy blond hair looked generally shabby, and the last one was just a mess.

"I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

As soon as she left, the room exploded with noise.

So much for quiet.

A scream came from the back of the group, causing all first years to turn and gasp at the semi-clear figures that were floating through the walls.

"First years?" Inquired one of them, a guy in with a high ruffled collar.

"That's right!" One of the boys, the short-black-haired one with glasses, spoke up with a grin.

He, the ghost, looked to be late 1400's to early 1500's. Maybe he was Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington, the Gryffindor ghost; he had been mentioned in _Hogwarts: A History_. There hadn't been any pictures, but it did tell the story of why he was beheaded, and how he was beheaded improperly. The one next to him was the Fat Friar because, while she would never give the reasoning aloud, he was a _fat friar_. He had been executed by his church, probably the Roman Catholic one, for little magic tricks like pulling rabbits out of the communal cup.

"Get moving!" A guy behind Serena hissed, shouldering past her.

"Right. Sorry." Serena muttered, walking forward with the crowd. As she entered the room she saw all the other first years looking around in awe at everything, but her attentions were captured by the older student's staring. She felt like she was in a fish bowl and all of the people already at tables were looking in, right at her. It was completely illogical of course, no one cared where she went or even that she was here except maybe Grace and Alice.

But then when the crowd of first years came to a halt all eyes turned to the front and center of the hall. At first it looked like they were staring at Professor Dumbledore (Serena's father had shown him to her off of the card in his chocolate frog card collection), but then McGonagall picked up something ratty and large, it was a greyish color that seemed to have been black at some point. She placed the thing on a stool about ten feet in front of where Dumbledore was sitting, and all of the older student's eyes followed.

Now that it was sat by itself, Serena could tell that it was a hat. A wizard's hat if you were going by its size, but it could have been a witch's too she supposed. Maybe she was a half giant- no, more like a quarter. Or maybe she had a permanent engorgeo charm on her head! Or maybe it was to accommodate some outlandish hairstyle! Or maybe-

Before she could get in too deep, the hat started moving. A tear opened up in the bottom, almost looking like a mouth, and it seemed to puff up for a moment, almost as if it were getting ready to speak.

"It was long ago it seems  
when I was given the chore  
to sort each student into a house  
where their strengths would soar!"

Or sing. Singing worked too.

"First of all is Gryffindor  
where go the brave and bold  
when some of them believe they're right  
no matter what they're told.

"The next house is Slytherin  
for the cunning and ambitious  
when allies there's no better,  
but as enemies can be vicious!

"Ravenclaw is the house for  
curious and sharp of mind  
however due to knowledge  
some can be quite blind.

"The fourth house is Hufflepuff  
where they are just and loyal  
though for their reputation  
some let their talent's spoil."

After this, the song the ratty hat at the front of the hall was singing took such a turn Serena could almost swear she got whiplash.

"Hard times are looming over us  
and in order to survive  
there is only one solution  
that I can contrive.

"These four houses in this hall  
that now I sit before  
though you may not like it  
I simply must implore:

"Set aside your differences  
because unless we band  
into one through this war  
we will not withstand."

The whole hall was silent for a moment. By the way everyone was staring at the hat, Serena guessed that it didn't usually spread such tidings of doom and gloom. People only started clapping when Dumbledore started, and even then it was halting and hesitant. When the clapping stopped, a few more moments of awkwardness passed before McGonagall cleared her throat.

"When I call your name come up and sit on the stool, and the sorting hat will place you in a house." She stated loudly, before calling "Agmunder, Janus" to the hat. A small, pale boy with brown hair made his way up and the sorting hat only needed about two seconds to yell out "Slytherin!"

"Black, Sirius!" The boy with long black hair walked towards the stool with what seemed to be as much confidence as the first, but by the tight smile and the worried eyes Serena could say with confidence that he was worried. The hat was dropped over his head, and it took a lot longer than the first time. Sirius even seemed to start arguing with the hat in a hushed whisper, and finally it yelled out "GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat was taken off his head and he gave the crowd of first years a thumbs up, or rather he gave the messy-haired boy one. But there was silence in the hall for several shocked moments.

A Black? Everyone knew about the Blacks, even muggle-borns had been warned about them upon arrival. A Black in _Gryffindor_? It just wasn't possible. They had been in Slytherin for generations. No one could even _begin_ to remember when a Black was in any other house, much less Gryffindor.

But then, out of the crowd of first years, one not-so-small voice rose up. It was the messy-haired bloke that the Black had been hanging out with.

"Yeah, go Gryffindor!" He yelled out, clapping.

How ironic it would be if he ended up sorted somewhere else.

Then the Gryffindors seemed to catch on that what they were supposed to be doing, and one person from the actual table started clapping. It was infectious apparently, and soon the whole house was clapping and shouting and some were even standing. Sirius made his way over with a huge grin, and got probably more congratulations than anyone would for the rest of the night.

After that, "Botro, Elizabeth" was sorted into Hufflepuff and "Carthrow, Carter" was sent to Ravenclaw.

It was interesting, how the different tables had, on a whole, different ways to greet house members. Slytherins would just nod or shake hands mostly, sometimes muttering congratulations under their breath. Ravenclaw would do similarly, except with little smiles. Hufflepuff would greet warmly, but not overwhelmingly. Then there was Gryffindor, who seemed to view every new housemate as a personal victory over the Slytherins, and showed their appreciation through shouting and hearty slaps on the back.

A shout of "GRYFFINDOR," brought Serena out of her thoughts once more, and she refocused in time to see Evans, Lily taking the hat off of her head and setting it down gently on the stool. As she headed somewhat reluctantly over to the screaming Gryffindors (they were less overenthusiastic than before but not much), she sent an apologetic look to someone in the crowd of first years still standing.

It must have been that greasy-haired kid who was staring after Lily in somewhat of a heartbroken manner.

"Fentin, Jason" was sent to Ravenclaw, followed almost immediately by "Greydon, Matt" whom Serena clapped for. He looked like he almost died going up to that hat; he needed the support. And he seemed like a nice enough person when she sat in the boat with him.

"Hale, Grace" was up next, and she needed a bit of a shove from Alice to get her legs working. Luckily, when she got up there she didn't need to stay long because as soon as the hat touched her head it yelled "HUFFLEPUFF!"

"Kappa, Adrian" was sent to the same house not long after, dragging with him his camera and using it to snap pictures of all the house tables as he went.

"Lupin, Remus" a sandy-haired boy with light scarring all over his visible skin made his way up to the stool. When the hat was placed on his head, his pale complexion went even paler after a moment. Perhaps the hat had said something that scared him. It was over before long, and the hat placed him in "Gryffindor!"

"Moxly, Abigale" was next, and she was too sorted into Gryffindor, giving the rest of the hall a superior look as she sauntered to her favorite house.

"Mulciber, Rufus" and "Othar, Ramsus" were both sorted into Slytherin.

"Pettigrew, Peter" was called up, and the messy-haired boy had to push him forward to get him going. He was small and kind of mousy, and skittered up the stairs as if something was chasing him. Once the hat was on his head, it took nearly a minute to sort him. It looked as if he (like Sirius had done) was talking to the hat. Except instead of arguing like Sirius, Peter looked to be begging. Eventually he was sorted into Gryffindor, though the hat didn't sound as keen on his decision as he had with the other students.

"Potter, James", the messy-haired kid, was up next. He swaggered up to the hat with utmost confidence, and was apparently rewarded when only a moment after the hat touched his head it pronounced him Gryffindor.

"Reyna, Alice" was called, and she gave Serena a huge grin before proceeding a little less confidentially to the stool. After about ten seconds, Alice got her wish of being in Gryffindor.

"Snape, Severus" was next. He was the greasy-haired one who had looked after Lily so sadly when she was sorted into Gryffindor. Lily looked hopeful, but Severus looked resigned when the hat was placed on his head. It seemed he had been expecting to be placed in Slytherin, but when he was he looked torn between happiness at being in his preferred house and sadness at being separated from his friend.

"Stebbens, Rosco" was sorted into Ravenclaw.

Now there were only five left, all girls.

7 Gryffindors, 3 Hufflepuffs, 4 Ravenclaws, and 4 Slytherins so far.

"Tally, Roxanne" and "Tally, Tiffany" (twins) were both sorted into Hufflepuff.

7 Gryffindors, 5 Hufflepuffs, 4 Ravenclaws, and 4 Slytherins so far.

Three to go.

"Umber, Rachel" was sorted to Slytherin.

7 Gryffindors, 5 Hufflepuffs, 4 Ravenclaws, and 5 Slytherins so far.

"Voltare, Hanna".

When the second-to-last name was called, Serena's heart almost stopped. Last. She was the last one. She knew it was a possibility, a probability even, but she didn't _want_ to go last.

As Hanna was sent to Hufflepuff, her name was called.

"Wendal, Serena."

No. No, no, no, she can't be last. But here she was, and everyone really _was_ staring at her this time. She couldn't move her legs. Her face was pale, her hands were shaking, what was the probability of dying of terror? _Could_ one die of sheer terror? She could look it up, but she didn't think so. If one could die of fright alone she would be dead right now.

Her legs couldn't move, everyone was staring, and since she was last there was no one left to give her a push.

"Go on, you'll be fine." There was a whisper, somewhere off to her left. What house was that again? Who had whispered? But she couldn't look. Her head wouldn't turn, for one, but she had also been standing here much too long. How long had it been? It felt like hours, but that couldn't be true at all. Later she would find that it had only been a couple of seconds.

She started her way to the stool, legs feeling like lead that had to be dragged along and her stomach turning sickeningly. She could feel them. The eyes, the gazes, all looking at her. Maybe she had scopophobia-fear of being stared at. It must be a mild case though; she wasn't totally freaking out.

There was a chuckle from, it seemed, inside her own head. She jerked back a little in surprise, but luckily did not fall off of the stool she didn't remember sitting down on.

 _You don't have scopophobia. It's normal to feel like that._

Serena tried to look around, but realized everything was dark. The only light was from around her chin, because that's how far the hat had fallen.

Whoever had worn this hat did have a very large head, just like she had suspected before.

 _Yes, Gryffindor had a very large head. Though I do quite enjoy your other theories._

A slight blush tinted her cheeks. She didn't really like the idea of someone looking into her mind, she had too many ideas, too many rambling trains of thought. It was just embarrassing, but at least the sorting hat seemed nice about it.

 _Now about your house, I see you don't want to go to Slytherin or Gryffindor._

Immediately, Serena felt bad. The hat's creator had been _the_ Gryffindor; what if it was insulting when someone didn't want to be placed in his house?

"It's not that I don't think they're both very good houses," she said quietly, trying to explain herself, but the hat only laughed.

 _Yes, I know, I can see into your mind if you recall. You just don't want to be part of a house rivalry, and that is perfectly acceptable. Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff are much more suited to you anyway._

It struck Serena as odd that he would use "they are suited to you" rather than "you are suited to them", like Ollivander had when he told her about how the wand chooses the wizard, except it seemed that maybe the wizard chose the house. She was the wand in this equation.

 _Interesting that you should make that connection. You do have quite the entertaining mind- connections everywhere. Nothing is just left floating. Good trait for a Ravenclaw._

Wait, did sentient hats even _have_ genders?

 _Yes, definitely a Ravenclaw._

"Ravenclaw!"

The hat was pulled off of her head and she had to close her eyes for a moment against the light as she stood up. Making her way over to the blue and bronze table, she saw that Matt had scooted over so that she could sit next to him, and gave a grateful smile as she seated herself.

She received many smiles, a few "congratulations", some "welcome to Ravenclaw"s, and one "I hope you're good at riddles", before Dumbledore stood.

"Before we eat, I have a few words to say: ballyhoo, dither, hob nob, duff. Now, dig in!"

Serena turned back to the table and blinked. The previously empty plates were now brimming with food. Of course, her father had told her about this and she had read about it in some of her books, but seeing it actually happen was something else entirely.

"How'd that happen?" Matt asked from beside her, looking at the food with trepidation. He poked a particularly juicy-looking pear with the tip of his wand.

She knew, of course, that it was house elf magic. But, seeing as she had already made one very popular girl her enemy today and Ravenclaws were notorious for each wanting to be the smartest person in the room, she decided she better let someone else enlighten her muggle-born acquaintance.

"Magic," an older boy said in a mystic type voice as he wiggled his fingers. Serena frowned, not liking that Matt was being made fun of for a simple question. If this was how Ravenclaws treated each other it was a miracle that they were still known as the inquisitive house. But before she could open her mouth and probably make another enemy, someone else did it for her.

"Robert, stop being a jerk to the first years." It was a girl sitting Robert's left side, and she smacked him in the back of the head while saying it. She then turned to Matt with a kind smile as Robert pouted. "It's the house elves that work in the kitchens. They make all of the food and then use their magic to send it up here when we're ready. Go on, it's perfectly safe."

Matt, looking a little less suspicious of the food, picked up a piece of chicken and nibbled on it. Almost immediately, his eyes widened.

"This is the best chicken I've ever tasted!" He gasped, earning a round of chuckles from the older students.

Serena stayed silent as she piled food onto her plate. If all went well during her school year, she would have some people to talk to that didn't think she was insane, and she would be able to avoid becoming the center of anything. Not friends, that was a bit too much to just ask for at this point. Maybe next year she could start moving some friendly acquaintances to friends.

Was there a fear of being noticed? Scopophobia was fear of being stared at, and she didn't have that, but she did seem to go through a lot of trouble to stay out of the spotlight. Of course, that was probably just because of-

"What about you Serena?"

What?

Obviously seeing her blank stare, Matt clarified.

"We're talking about blood status. I'm a muggle-born." He looked so proud of himself.

"I'm a half-blood. My mom's a muggle, and my dad was in Gryffindor." She stated, picking at her food. She had never really been a big eater, and her stomach still felt a bit unsettled from the sorting ceremony.

But her father was a half-blood. If a half-blood and a muggle married, wouldn't their kids be quarter bloods? And a pureblood and a half-blood would make a three quarters blood? That's how fractions worked, so why did anyone only say they were muggle-born, half-blood, or pureblood? What if two muggle-borns had a kid? Would the kid still be considered muggle-born? What if a pureblood married a squib from a pureblood family? Is the Squib considered a muggle for all intents and purposes?

The whole blood-system was complete nonsense.

The food was suddenly replaced by a whole boatload of chocolates, pasties, sweets, and cakes. As Serena continued to ponder the blood system, she absentmindedly ate chocolate. It seemed that after that first interruption the Ravenclaws had decided to just let her mind wander, because it was only when Dumbledore spoke that she was aware of her surroundings once more.

"Now that we have all eaten our fill, I have some announcements to make. First of all, to our old students, welcome back! And to our new students, welcome. I would like to inform the new students, and remind some of the older ones," his eyes flashed over to someone in Slytherin, "That the forbidden forest is out of bounds. We are also having a new addition to the grounds that I feel it may be best to avoid: a whomping willow. They are rather temperamental things which don't like being touched."

At this point, a fair amount of people were wondering what exactly a whomping willow was, while of those who knew some were excited and the rest were wondering what on earth possessed Dumbledore to put something so dangerous on the grounds. Only a few people noticed that, during this announcement, Dumbledore's eyes consistently glanced at what seemed to be a certain person in Gryffindor but even those who did notice couldn't tell who it was.

"What's a whomping willow?" Matt asked from beside her.

"It's a huge tree that tries to hit anything that comes too close," the girl who had hit Robert earlier supplied a much simplified explanation to what Serena was thinking.

"The prefects will now show each house to their common room. I wish you all a good year!" Dumbledore concluded, and almost immediately everyone stood up. The hall was filled with noise, excited students chattering, people bumping into one another, and prefects yelling for their houses to gather and follow them. Serena did so without question; she had eaten way too much chocolate for her own good while she wasn't paying attention and she needed to sleep.

As they were led through the halls the two prefects gave a mini history lesson, explaining the historical events behind moving paintings, pointing out some passageways that almost every student knew about, and sharing some interesting facts like how many staircases there were in total. They were also informed about the different ghosts: nearly-headless nick was a nice and helpful one, the fat friar was the same, the grey lady was usually happy to help up students in need but the bloody baron wasn't someone first years should bother. Peeves the poltergeist was about as nice as the bloody baron, Moaning Myrtle was a plain bother. Both should be avoided.

They continued climbing stairs; the Ravenclaw common room was in a tower after all. They were on the fifth floor, Serena near the front of the crowd, when they ascended a spiral staircase and came face-to-wood with a door that had no knob or even keyhole. It was made of beautiful mahogany, and a rather ornate golden eagle knocker was placed just a bit higher than Serena's head. The Prefects stopped.

"Alright everyone, let's see if this batch has what it takes," the girl grinned as she reached out and used the knocker.

"My life can be measured in hours. I serve by being devoured. Thin, I am quick. Fat, I am slow. Wind is my foe," the knocker recited.

"A candle," Serena said immediately. She had always loved riddles, and she was good at them most of the time. However when she started thinking too much she usually found several different interpretations; the first was usually right.

The older students nodded appreciatively at how quickly she had figured out the answer as the door swung open. Behind the door was a large circular room with a dome ceiling, the walls had arched windows around it and bookshelves filled with enough books to fill Serena's bedroom at home. There were blue and bronze silk drapes, a midnight blue carpet, and the ceiling was painted to look like the night sky. In the back of the room there was a statue of Rowena Ravenclaw, founder of Ravenclaw house, in between two staircases that lead up to the dormitories.

"The one on the left is the girls' the one on the right it the boys. Now go to sleep," the prefect boy said as he walked up the right set of stairs. The girl rolled her eyes.

"Feel free to read any books on the shelves, but class starts tomorrow so you might want to go to bed soon. Goodnight!"

Serena went up to her dorm immediately, thinking she would be the only girl. After all, she had only seen five new Ravenclaws and the four that weren't herself were boys. Much to her surprise, there were four beds in the 1st year dorm, each with luggage on it. Apparently she had zoned out more than she thought. There _had_ been a surprisingly small amount of students, and some weird alphabet name skips.

Exactly how many students had she missed being sorted? Come to think of it, she only remembered seeing 23 including herself, and there were probably at _least_ 50 first years. How had she missed this huge gap in her information?

Deciding that it was probably due to stress, she thought it best to get to bed. Rounding the large furnace in the center of the room, definitely for cold winter nights, she peered at the names on the luggage. Before she found hers, however, there was a screech and in the room landed a beautiful black owl.

" _Star!"_ Serena grinned, but to anyone else in the room it would have sounded an awful lot like an owl screeching.

That was what made Serena so strange.

It was one thing to talk to animals, everyone did it sometimes, and another to actually be able to understand them. However, when you magically start speaking _their language_ when you talk to them, it catapults you from "kind of weird" straight to "grab the straightjacket".

" _Star Who Shines Brightly in the Sky,"_ the owl corrected, preening.

Not all animals could speak back as well as Star (who chose her own name by the way). It all really depended on the intelligence of the species in general. For example, cats and dolphins were two other types of animals that spoke almost human-like while… say, most fish. They didn't so much use sentences as just say "Food. Hungry. Eat." Then there were dogs, who were pretty articulate. But then they would get excited and only have the brainpower to summon up one word over and over again. Of course there were always exceptions- owls who were mentally impaired. Fish who were certifiable geniuses.

Why, once she had talked to a monkey about the theoretic creation of a plasma injector and fuel core like on star trek. She used to visit him all the time, but he was transferred to a different zoo a few months before she had to leave for Hogwarts.

" _Star Who Shines Brightly in the Sky, I missed you!"_ Serena cooed, seating herself on the bed Star had pegged as hers. It was just to the left of the arched window, which had a large ledge to sit on and, it seemed, no glass. Which was strange, because though Star had just flown right through there certainly _looked_ like there was a window. Plus it would just be ridiculously idiotic to have a hole in a tower of first years.

She would check it out later.

" _Do you have food?"_ Star asked, head cocked to the side.

" _No, sorry, I-"_ The door opened and Serena stopped talking immediately.

"Oh, Hi! You're Serena, right?" Asked the first girl who walked in. She was taller than Serena (most people were, she had always been small for her age), with a bright smile and hair so blond it was almost white. She would probably have been a cheer leader if she had gone to a normal muggle school.

Serena nodded silently as two others followed the first.

"Where's the other owl?" The girl with curly red hair asked mostly to herself, brown eyes darting around the room in search of the missing bird. Serena thanked her lucky stars (Draco, Lyra and Sirius) that having an owl was normal in the wizarding world, and having two in a room didn't raise red flags. That girl seemed like the type that was funny, but had a slightly questionable sense of humor.

The third girl, whose wavy brown hair was almost dark enough to be black, just waved timidly. She was, obviously, the timid nice girl who mellowed out her two friends.

Interesting how three personalities so different were sorted into the same house.

"I'm Rachel, the redhead is Liz, and she's Sydney," the blond introduced as she found her bed and plopped down.

"Hey, why's it that you don't have a cage for your owl?" Liz asked bluntly. Serena supposed Liz was in Ravenclaw for her common sense, Rachel was probably very curious, and Sydney was book smart.

"Star doesn't like cages. She gets really loud if she even _thinks_ you're thinking about putting her in one," Serena grimaced, remembering the very long line of insults that came soaring out of the bird's mouth the first time they had tried that.

"I have an owl too," Rachel said, sifting through her belongings in search of something. "He's a barn owl I named Carpenter because he has this habit of chewing on wood."

"Um, Rachel, we should probably get to sleep," Sydney suggested quietly.

"Mm hm. Yeah, we don't really have time for your pet photos right now. Maybe tomorrow at breakfast or something," Liz agreed, giving Serena an exaggerated eye roll when Rachel gave out a huff of air and pouted.

"Fine," she whined, folding herself into the covers. "But I'm not changing."

"Amen to that," Liz agreed. Despite that, Serena changed into her pajamas before she went to sleep.

* * *

AN: First chapter! What do you think of Serena?

Stick with it, and I swear there will be some Marauder action going on. This chapter was mostly to establish Serena's character.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: So this'll be the end of first year because first year was only for introducing characters. 2nd will have much more Marauders and other characters and actual plot rather than Serena just dipping around.**

* * *

 **In which they go to** _ **all**_ **the classes**

Rachel got up first the next morning, a fact that didn't surprise Serena in the slightest. She was also the only one who applied makeup (albeit light). As the others woke up, Rachel and Sydney did each other's hair (Rachel's in a French braid and Sydney's in a normal braid that was then twisted into some sort of bun). They asked to do Liz's as well, but she flat out refused.

So they turned on Serena, who had already pulled her hair into a simple ponytail.

" _Please_ , Serena, Liz _never_ lets us do hers," Rachel begged. Serena tried desperately to avoid looking at Sydney's puppy dog eyes. She had never liked putting her hair up in anything intricate, but if she left it down the strands got into her eyes. Low ponytails were the only way to go.

"Aw darn, it's breakfast time. We'd better go get our timetables," Liz sighed dramatically, grabbing Serena and pulling her out of the room.

"We've got half an hour," Rachel complained as they left out the portrait hole.

"Do _you_ remember how to get to the great hall, because I sure don't," Liz pointed out as they started their trek. After wandering for thirty minutes in what should have been a no more than ten minute trip, they finally arrived at the great hall. It was mostly full, and the food was already out but it seemed to have just appeared.

They sat down just in time for Professor Flitwick to give them their time tables, along with a bemused look and a light comment about how first years should be provided with maps.

Monday there would be Herbology with Gryffindor and then Transfiguration with Slytherin, afterwards Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuffs.

Tuesday would consist of Defense Against the Dark Arts with Hufflepuff and then Charms with Gryffindor followed by History of Magic with the Slytherins

Wednesday started off with double Potions with Hufflepuff, followed by Transfiguration with Gryffindor, and then Astronomy at midnight.

Thursday would start with Herbology with Gryffindor, then History of Magic with Slytherin, and a free afternoon.

Friday simply had Charms with Gryffindor and then flying lessons in the afternoon.

Serena finished breakfast quickly, and walked in the general direction she figured the greenhouses may be in. The others were still eating when she left, but she got no real reaction other than a few "see you in class" type comments flung over shoulders. The greenhouses were surprisingly easy to find, given the size of the grounds, so she spent her time peering into the different windows and seeing if she could spot anything she recognized.

She wasn't a big Herbology buff, so she didn't know much, but she did see a few things because her father _really_ loved Herbology. One that she recognized immediately was the Venomous Tentacula. A few of those plants were placed strategically in the garden at her house by her father partially as protection from pesky garden gnomes.

Mostly he thought it made life more exciting.

Gryffindors.

Finally other people started arriving. The Ravenclaws came first, of course, because they were actually excited for classes. Most of the Gryffindors slid in right before the bell, but Serena noticed that the Potter and Black boys were missing when the greenhouse doors finally opened.

In front of the class stood a plump witch who looked to be somewhere in her thirties. She had dirt sprinkled all over, especially caked under her nails, and wore a patch-hat that sat atop her flyaway hair. Despite that, she had a jovial look about her, like she was almost always happy about something.

"Good morning, class!" She chirped, walking outside the greenhouse rather than telling them to come in. "I am Professor Sprout, head of Hufflepuff house and your Herbology teacher. Since today is the first class, I'll give you an overview of the curriculum and-"

"Hey professor!" A voice called suddenly.

"Sorry we're late!" A second added. Everyone turned to see two Gryffindor boys, Potter and Black, grinning merrily as they came to a stop at the back of the crowd of first years.

"We got lost," the first one, James Potter, shrugged.

Professor Sprout raised an eyebrow, but merely smiled.

"I'll let you two off on account of it being the first day, but try not to be late to any other classes. Some teachers aren't as lenient as I am. Now, as I was saying, I'm Professor Sprout…"

After introductions and the usual _welcome to *insert class here*_ speech, Professor Sprout took attendance before leading them around to all the greenhouses. She told them all what number each was, what year students used it, and some of the plants inside each. She ended at the one first years used, that they had met at in the beginning, and they finally went inside.

Once inside Professor Sprout pointed out some plants they would be studying and informing the students that they would actually be learning _some_ magic in this class as a way to repel some of the more dangerous plants.

Potter and Black were playing catch with a bouncing bulb in the back.

The bulb was winning.

One student, Remus Lupin, started scolding them about distracting others during class. That is, until the bulb jumped out of James' hand and smacked the messy-haired boy right in the snoz. He tried not to laugh, but several other students weren't so thoughtful.

Professor Sprout was about to really give them an earful, probably about damaging her plants, but just then the bell rang and all of the students streamed out before she could get a word in edgewise.

"Hi Sear!" A voice said suddenly, almost causing Serena to drop all of her books. She managed to catch all but one, but another person reached out and caught it at the last second. Serena looked up; it was Alice.

"Oh… hi, Alice," Serena answered, slightly surprised. Alice hadn't talked to her all lesson, and as far as Serena could tell hadn't even waved or so much as glanced over, so Serena thought that maybe Abigail had already turned her.

A little ways away, Serena saw Abigail glaring darkly at her while two other Gryffindor girls (a blond that she didn't know and red-headed Lily Evans) looked between the two as if not sure what to make of the exchange.

Of course. Alice was a Gryffindor after all, and while that didn't necessitate loyalty, it did mean she was bold enough to do what she wanted instead of what Abigail wanted her to do.

"Just wanted to say hi, and we should sit together in class sometime. I'd better hurry if I want to get to History of Magic. Bye!" She ran off and joined Lily Evans, the blond with blue eyes, and Abigail as they walked to class.

The transfiguration room was an actual room, as opposed to the greenhouse Herbology was held in. It had three rows of tables that two people each could sit at each. Serena sat in the middle front desk; no one else would really want to sit in the front (McGonagall was notorious for being terrifying and picking out everything she saw wrong with something a student was doing so no one wanted to be directly in her line of sight). As the other students walked in, most of them paired off with someone else in their class and took a seat. Finally, one student walked in right before the bell rung and slid into the seat next to Serena. He was a Slytherin, which kind of surprised her. He was a scrawny boy, maybe an inch taller than her and with even skinnier limbs, with insanely curly brown hair and murky brown eyes.

"What's with the cat?" He whispered almost immediately. Serena spared a glance at the cat with spectacle markings sitting on the professor's desk. She had actually been wondering that as well, but so far she didn't have any reasonable explanation.

"I have no idea. I'd say it's her pet, but Professor McGonagall doesn't seem like the type of person to leave an animal wandering around her classroom unless there's a reason."

"Maybe she'll turn it into something! You know, like a demonstration," he said, and they both turned to stare intently at said feline.

Much to their surprise as everyone else's, it jumped off of the desk and halfway through the air it turned into Professor McGonagall.

"Correct…" She said, looking at the boy expectantly.

"Janie," he said, eyes wide.

"Very well, let us begin," she said curtly, and the rest of the lesson continued in much the same matter. Blunt and straight to the point about everything.

First she declared that anyone seen messing off in her class would be immediately punished, then she told them all that transfiguration was more than waving your wand and saying a few words. To demonstrate she gave everyone a matchstick, and told them to try turning it into a needle after giving them the correct words, motions, and a demonstration.

It was much harder than McGonagall made it look.

Serena looked around the classroom right before the bell rang and realized, with a surge of pride, that hers was one of the more needle-like. Of course, it was just a little silvery and somewhat pointed on one end, but still.

Lunch was after that, and she thought it would be a boring endeavor.

It wasn't.

Lunch started out normal enough, with everyone sitting at their respective tables and some of the older students milling about to talk to their friends in other houses. No one so much as glanced at the two black-haired Gryffindor first years who seemed to be waiting for something, nor the sandy-haired boy who apparently knew something was going to happen but didn't know _what_.

But then, suddenly, the Slytherin table was encased in a cloud of horrible-smelling greenish smoke and all the Ravenclaws on the side nearest to their table jumped up and ran away with the Slytherins.

It would have been hard to locate the perpetrators had they not loudly announced that they were the ones to rig the table.

James and Sirius were high-fiving and laughing loudest of all, but Remus didn't seem pleased. In fact, he looked kind of scandalized. They didn't even stop grinning when Professor McGonagall, definitely the scariest human being currently residing in the castle, came over with her signature disappointed scowl to give them detention.

Defense against the dark arts was possibly Serena's least favorite class.

Not to get her wrong; she enjoyed learning defense and attack spells (she wasn't particularly _good_ at them though), and the Hufflepuffs were all very nice, it was just that the professor was… well, he didn't seem to actually _know_ anything.

The first day in his class, Serena tried to listen. She really did, but she just didn't know how Professor Montie could talk so much and yet tell them _absolutely nothing._

Grace, who sat beside her, didn't seem to listen either. But for some reason she seemed to think the Professor was the smartest person ever. Probably because he was good looking.

Serena resisted the urge to point out the fact that the professor was at least fifteen years older than her, and since Grace was only eleven it was kind of weird for her to even be _thinking_ about that.

Of course, she would later find out that only a handful of other girls felt that way. Liz being one of them.

The next time she came to that class, the very next morning, Serena came prepared with several books on defense for her to read while Montie continued to blather on about everything and yet _nothing_ at the same time.

Charms with Professor Flitwick, her head of house, was rather enjoyable. Especially when she was the first to get her feather into the air. That was also the first time since the first lunch she actually noticed the boys that she had already decided would be best to avoid. James Potter and Sirius Black had apparently converted Remus Lupin to their side, because he was still hanging out with them despite his rule-following demeanor, and they suddenly had a small, chubby, adorable-in-a-pitiful-kind-of-way boy named Peter Pettegrew following them around.

Sirius and James were the second and third to get their feathers up, and by the end of the class they managed to be so proficient in the hovering charm that they could swordfight with their feathers.

History of magic was dull even for Serena, who was the type of person that researched school subjects outside of class for fun. Having it with the Slytherins made it a bit more fun; they had made a game of seeing how many things a single person could throw through Professor Bins, he was a ghost after all, before he noticed. Janie was the one who had started this trend, the questionable kid, when he had accidentally thrown his pencil across the room (he said it was an accident at least) and it had sailed directly through Bins' head. The entire class had sat at attention for a moment (an anomaly to be sure) before it became absolutely clear that Bins hadn't even noticed.

Janie took that as a challenge.

The other students took Janie's challenge as a personal number to beat.

The record was 354 by the end of the year (it, sadly, was not Janie but actually a Ravenclaw who did it), and the only reason they stopped was because they ran out of things to throw.

Potions was an interesting class, and Professor Slughorn was a nice guy, but he seemed to care much more about who was related to someone famous than actually teaching the rest of the class. Sadly, or not, Serena fell into the not-important section while two brothers from Hufflepuff got immediate status because one of their parents was apparently a quidditch star.

Astronomy was fun; the first class Professor VanSink briefly explained the curriculum before merely pointing out and naming various constellations.

Flying was not her forte. Serena had never been a physical person, and maybe some people found it easy to ride a flying stick at high speeds, but she didn't. She wasn't super bad at it- not like Peter, poor kid- nor was she terrified of it like a small Gryffindor named Ryan Hopping. Really, she was a completely average flier. She didn't go too fast, didn't go too high, really just puttered around avoiding the four Gryffindor boys that had banded together to make everyone else miserable. Rather, James and Sirius were aiming for that. Remus still looked to disagree with them, and Peter just egged them on from the ground.

They had been tossing stink bombs from their brooms the whole lesson, and it was no surprise when they were escorted grinning off the field, waving cheerily at Remus and Peter as they went.

* * *

Cows and rule breaking

The first Saturday of the month, Serena sat on the window ledge reading a book long after the others had gone to bed. It was one of her magical creatures books; after all, she figured that if she could talk to them she should learn something about them just in case. Wouldn't want to say something that could offend a dragon.

She had just finished the section on mooncalves when she glanced outside.

Was that a flicker of silver in the woods?

She looked up, noting the full moon. What would speaking to a mooncalf be like? They were apparently really shy, could she even find one? Actually, did any live on Hogwarts grounds?

This was a dumb idea. A really, really dumb idea.

She felt herself standing up and ghosting towards the door anyway.

No, no, she didn't even know if she would be able to find one, much less talk to it!

Regardless, she walked down the stairs and exited the porthole.

She was going to get caught. She was so going to get caught.

Serena stalked down the halls, keeping to the shadows and never lighting her wand. Good thing she had an acceptable memory, or else she wouldn't be able to do this.

Curse her good memory.

Just as she was getting close to the exit, a light appeared from ahead of her and a muttering voice she recognized as the Slytherin prefect Lucius Malfoy.

 _I'M GOING TO BE EXPELLED! PLEASE DON'T LET ME BE EXPELLED!_

"Pleasepleasepleaseplease" Serena muttered under her breath, not noticing that she was even doing it.

In her panic, she stumbled back into a suit of armor. It didn't fall apart. No, it did something much more terrifying.

It grabbed her.

Serena, currently in shock, didn't scream or even struggle as the armor dropped straight into the floor through the pedestal it was standing on and landed at the end of a very long tunnel.

It then proceeded to let her go, and look just as it did before it moved.

Serena looked around in shock, looking up and noting that the ceiling had closed behind the armor. Then, looking back at the armor, she grinned in pure relief.

"Thank you!" She whispered, and got a nod in reply. She started walking down the tunnel and when she glanced back it was just in time to see a sliver of light disappear as the suit of armor returned to its spot.

The tunnel ended in another dead end.

She wondered why on earth there would be some random tunnel with two dead ends right under the school, and her first erratic thought was that maybe the suit of armor was evil and periodically dropped terrified first-years into it to starve.

Letting out an irritated huff, she crumpled up that thought and threw it away.

If that was right, where were the skeletons?

"This is a magic castle, there has to be a way to open this wall…" She mused, running her hands all over the wall. "Maybe…" She tried pushing all the different bricks. "No…" She muttered, instead tapping them with her wand. Nothing. She tried several other things, wasting about ten minutes until there was suddenly a reaction.

As she jerked her wand in a lightning shape, she had been trying different wand motions for about five minutes, the wall started glowing a soft blue. But not all of it- the bricks seemed to have formed words that she hadn't seen before.

 _What do you say?_

"Umm," it couldn't possibly mean what she thought it did, could it? "Thank you?"

There was a soft grinding sound like the wall in diagon alley and the wall opened up in a similar way. Serena stepped out, looking around in interest. Directly to her left was the front door- exactly where she had been heading before.

Now she noticed that it was closed, and opening it would have been both very stupid and very hard.

That she had found the secret passage- the secret passage found her?- was either very lucky or very unlucky, because if she hadn't and somehow she got to the front door she would be heading back to the common room by now.

As it was, she wasn't sure how to open the thing up from the outside (pure terror, perhaps?) so she figured she might as well look around a bit.

The grounds looked very different at night, but not in a creepy kind of way. With the full moon's light illuminating the whole area it was easy to see; the lake seemed to emit a sort of light on its own, making the water a shimmery blue and seemingly a lot clearer than in the daytime. If she squinted, Serena could swear she saw a mermaid… merman… merperson swimming around.

Then there was the tree beside the lake, whose leaves looked to be absorbing the moon's light and using it to shine a dull green. It was absolutely beautiful.

Serena's arms fell to her sides as she admired the view.

 _THUD!_

At the sound, Serena almost fell backwards into the lake before darting behind the slightly glimmering tree. Looking back to where he sound came from, she saw a book.

Her book.

The book that she had apparently carried all the way from her dorm room, through the passage, and out here without realizing it. Taking a glance around, Serena decided that it would be a waste to just head back inside when she had her book, light, the possibility of seeing a mooncalf, and this beautiful view.

So she settled down with her back against the tree and found that she could read almost as well as in the daylight.

It was perfect. The soft green glow of the leaves, the luminescent quality of the lake, the grass was so soft, and this tree was at just the right angle for leaning against-

A shadow fell across her.

"Oi! What are ya doin' out here? It's past curfew!" A booming voice asked, causing Serena to drop her book as she hurried to her feet.

It didn't make her feel any better because the man was still about three times her size.

"I-I'm sorry, I was just reading my book inside and I wondered if Hogwarts had any mooncalves and I wanted to see one because I really like animals so I snuck out here because they only come out on full moons! But I didn't see any and everything out here is really pretty at night so I guess I just sat down and started reading instead!" She said all in one breath, clutching Magical Creatures and Where to Find Them to her chest.

Oh yes, definitely going to be expelled.

Hagrid, for it had taken her a moment to recognize him in the suddenly much less pretty and much more eerie light, took a moment to process those words before grinning.

"Mooncalves, eh? They're awful shy, but we do got a colony here. I know how ta find 'em!" He said, very excited. It wasn't often that he met someone who even knew what mooncalves were, much less went looking for them in the middle of the full moon! This was a girl after his own heart, and he completely forgot about the little issue of it being after curfew as he led Serena (who had to almost flat-out run to keep up) into a little path through the forbidden forest.

"So wha's your name?" He asked in a low grumble Serena thought must've been him trying to whisper.

"Serena Wendal; I'm a first year," she whispered back as they passed through the first of the trees. The rumors about there being werewolves and other monsters in the forest didn't even occur to her as they continued on. She was finally going to see a mooncalf! What would it be like to talk to them? How did they speak? Like a cow? Like a horse? Something completely and totally different?

They didn't go very far in, stopping a few feet away from the edge of a clearing.

In that clearing stood, or rather danced, two strange blue beings. They looked a bit like cows, but their four legs were long and spindly and ended in huge feet. On their heads sat huge eyes, the bigger one looked alight with happiness, but the other looked weary.

"It's the full moon! It's the full moon!" The happy one sang.

"You don't think there are any werewolves out there, do you?" The other one asked.

"We should go back," Hagrid said, pulling her back. She blinked in surprise, not having noticed herself drifting forward before, and then felt a pang of disappointment. She couldn't talk to the mooncalves and still keep her secret; not while Hagrid was with her. "An' you need ta get ta bed," he added as an afterthought as they exited the forest.

"Yes sir," she said a bit guiltily. "I won't do this again."

"Ya better no'," he said, though the glint in his beady eyes may have meant he was joking, "if I catch yah again I'm gonna hafta report yah ta yer head of house… it's a good thing I was awake tonight. Usually I'm asleep by now," he added. She wasn't sure if he was honestly musing on his sleeping schedule or if he was hinting that she could, in fact, come back and he wouldn't get after her.

"Well, good night then," she smiled. Either way, she was probably going to come back during the full moons. She looked like a goody-two-shoes most of the time, but she did have a tiny rebellious streak in her.

Besides, she still wanted to talk to the mooncalves.

* * *

For the rest of the year, nothing really changed. Serena would hang out with Alice and Grace sometimes, as well as having a few good talks with Matt. Hagrid turned into her best friend; he would have her over for tea and rock cakes and tell her about different types of exotic and dangerous animals. She continued to further avoid the four troublesome Gryffindors, though she still got hit by some of their pranks (no one escaped completely unscathed by them; even they got in the way of their own pranks sometimes, or purposely pranked each other). She also continued to get along with her roommates (she had found out that while Liz was pretty smart, but she was also crap at riddles and almost always had to get help through the door).

She made several more forays into the forbidden forest, some with Hagrid some not, and continued to read under that tree when the full moon was out, but despite that everyone was under the impression she was a quiet goodie-two-shoes.

All in all, Serena counted it as a good year.

* * *

AN: How many of you thought I was gonna have her be attacked by Remus?


	3. Chapter 3

**Talking air and mini pranksters**

After a long and entirely uneventful summer (well, other than the incident where the garden gnomes took down the Venomous Tentacula in the southern quarter and they had to bring out the bouncing bulbs), Serena was entirely ready to go back to school. She had spent most of the summer inside her house reading muggle novels and magical textbooks, sometimes venturing into the gardens and coming up with new and fun ways to take down garden gnomes with plants. Occasionally she wandered outside; people still thought she was crazy.

Over the summer she had received a few letters from multiple people; Grace, Alice, Liz, Rachel, Sydney, even one from Janie (though it was asking if she was able to do the homework, because she was the smartest person he talked to and he was having trouble), most came from Hagrid. Surprisingly, none from the ministry of magic calling her out for doing magic while underage.

Her father explained that this was because she lived in a "magical household" and as long as she only performed spells in the confines of their small home it was assumed that he cast the spells. Even if he wasn't home at the time and they knew it, most people weren't thorough enough to check that.

Serena was sure this year would be exactly like the last. She would occasionally talk to those people who would talk to her, sometimes she would actually go out and do something with an acquaintance, and she would continue to break the rules on the sly (rationalizing the whole way of course) and exploring the castle for more secret passages. Oh, and she would definitely avoid that one troublesome group of Gryffindors as well as Abigail and her friends.

Why did so many Gryffindors dislike her? Kind of funny, considering Slytherins were supposed to be the mean ones. The Slytherins she talked to were very nice.

She walked through the train, trying to spot someone she knew and she could possibly sit with. Grace's compartment was completely full (Matt was in there too), Alice's contained Abigail, Liz Sydney and Rachel were sitting with the marauders.

The next compartment with an empty seat was filled with Slytherins, but they had almost always been nicer than her to Gryffindors so she decided to ask anyway.

"Could I sit in here?" She asked, sliding open the door. There were four empty seats- three had bags on them- and the two that were occupied held the sixth year Narcissa Black and an obviously new first year that looked a lot like Sirius. Narcissa was nice; she and Serena had talked a few times the previous year after they ran into each other in the owlery and Narcissa realized her sister had borrowed her owl without asking. They had commiserated; not about sisters stealing things (seeing as Serena was an only child) but just about people stealing things and not giving them back.

"No," the kid said bluntly. Narcissa gave him a chiding look.

"Regulus, be polite," she said, then turning and smiling softly at Serena. "I'm sorry Serena, but we're expecting four more people so we don't have any open spots."

Serena nodded in understanding, "it's fine Narcissa, I'm sure there are plenty of open compartments. See you both at the sorting."

Along with them expecting others, Serena suspected that they were going to talk about this "Dark Lord" guy that the Slytherins had started getting interested in recently. As far as Serena could figure, he was some pureblood-supporting politician of the magical world that was amassing followers. Of course, she also thought that anyone that called themselves "The Dark Lord" was probably not the type of person who should be running a government. But, well, who was she to tell others that their political standpoint was wrong? Plus that was really the only thing she knew about the guy, and it was unfair to judge him on his questionable naming conventions.

In the end, she sat awkwardly with four people from four different years in four different houses that were all mutually ignoring each other. It was the longest, awkwardest, most peaceful ride ever because none of them really acknowledged the others existence.

When she finally exited the train, Serena let out a breath she could have sworn she had been holding since she entered the compartment and released a huge grin when she heard: "FIRS' YEARS OVER HERE!"

There was Hagrid, still standing at least twice as tall as even the tallest first year.

"Hagrid!" She called, shoving her way towards her half-giant friend and a bit annoyed to notice that even at 4'11 she was shorter than a good chunk of the first years. Not that 4'11 was an impressive height, but it _was_ two inches taller than she had been last year.

"Serena!" He boomed when he saw her. "Haven't grown a bit, have yeh?"

She was not amused, and made sure her face told him that.

"So I go on the carriages this year, right?" Serena asked, throwing a look to said vehicles. She didn't fancy sitting with more people she didn't even know.

"Yep, and yeh better get goin' 'cuz they leave fast," Hagrid advised. Serena took his advice and trudged towards the black carriages, only to realize she had arrived just in time for the last one. Apparently Hagrid hadn't been exaggerating.

She hopped into the thing just as it started moving; pulled along by some invisible force. Inside was only one other person; a boy that looked a few years older than her with pale blonde hair, slightly crossed eyes, and a book he seemed to be reading while wearing x-ray glasses.

You know, those cheap ones from muggle stores that only have the purpose of letting kids pretend they have x-ray vision.

Serena tried very hard not to think about why he was wearing them; her brain would just come up with a hundred hare-brained answers and then she would somehow embarrass herself.

Luckily, she was distracted from that line of thought quickly.

" _It seems like the blonde can see us this year,"_ a first voice, low and smooth.

" _About time he just accepted what happened; poor kid,"_ replied a second, this one slightly higher than the first.

Serena looked around with a troubled expression on her face; never before had she started just hearing voices. Of course, she glanced at the boy, the voices could be talking about him. But what could he have seen that gave him the ability to see them?

Perhaps that was why he wore the x-ray glasses.

Serena mentally smacked herself. She had promised herself that she wouldn't speculate about the glasses.

The carriage stopped before she had gathered up enough courage to ask either the boy or the animals what, exactly, they were. Before walking in the castle, the boy paused and petted the thin air ahead of the carriage. Serena squinted, as if that would help her see the animals, and when that didn't work she headed inside after the other blond.

All the students sat at their own tables; there was no visiting others or wandering today because the sorting ceremony would be in just a few minutes. Some people had siblings in the throng of first years that had just swarmed into the hall, but most were just waiting for the sorting hat's newest song. After all, though the sorting ceremony was a tradition the song changed every year.

The ratty scrap of fabric was placed on the same old stool. Most of the first years looked confused at the old addition to the hall, but some straightened as if they knew exactly what would happen.

The tear in the bottom began to open up.

"My main job in this school  
is to pick each student's house  
whether they're loud like a lion,  
or quiet as a mouse.

"First of all to Gryffindor  
go the brave and bold  
however some of them are not  
quite as we are told.

"And then there is Hufflepuff  
who value loyalty and toil  
when friendship is questioned,  
don't let their names be soiled"

That one didn't rhyme. Serena resisted the urge to point this out and ask it to be fixed. Poetry wasn't very important right now.

"Or into Ravenclaw,  
if you've a ready mind  
but while most are smart,  
not all of them are kind.

"In Slytherin, dark Slytherin,  
most will see a foe  
but with even cunning and ambition,  
friendship can forgo.

"Hard times are looming over us  
and in order to survive  
there is only one solution  
that I can contrive.

"These four houses in this hall  
that now I sit before  
though you may not like it  
I simply must implore:

"Set aside your differences  
because unless we band  
into one through this war  
we will not withstand."

There was, once more, a long awkward silence after the hat had finished. Apparently the hat hadn't finished warning them, though that would make sense. If hard times had been looming last year, they were falling this year.

After Dumbledore again led the hesitant applause, McGonagall started reading off names. They got ten new Ravenclaws this year, six boys and four girls.

People were very distracted during the sorting, but one name that all listened to was "Black, Regulus!"

The boy swaggered up to the stool with a haughty look, and when he turned around there was almost a collective gasp. That kid was no doubt Sirius' brother. He looked exactly the same, but just a little bit smaller. Like a little Sirius Mini-me. He sent a vicious glare over to Gryffindor table, where Sirius was crossing his fingers.

There was a long, long silence.

Regulus' smirk slowly died on his face, and after a minute his mouth started moving. He seemed to be arguing, in hushed tones, with the hat, and the longer the silence stretched the more agitated he got.

It was somewhat similar to Sirius' last year... when Sirius had seemingly argued his way into Gryffindor.

Were they going to have another Black that wasn't Slytherin?

Just as the fifth minute started, the tear on the hat stretched open.

"Slytherin!" The hat shouted, though it was less enthusiastic than usual. Regulus stood, and no one noticed how he was slightly paler than normal under his darker skin tone, as he stood tall and sneered around at the other tables. As he walked past Ravenclaw table he locked eyes with Serena and gave her a glare only a little less potent than the one that he had thrown his brother. She returned it with a confused look only, to which he scoffed and sat down with the other Blacks sitting at the Slytherin table.

Sirius, at the Gryffindor table, was grinning.


	4. Chapter 4

**The little git who has a point**

AN: I actually did make up the sorting hat songs in both years. Thanks to the guest who appreciated my skillz.

* * *

For the first two weeks, Serena's suspicions were entirely correct. It was exactly like last year. Well, other than the new defense against the dark arts teacher. He was a little mean, and maybe a bit sadistic, but he also seemed to know what he was doing so Serena could deal with that.

It was on the third Tuesday that something different happened. Serena had been in the library; way in the back so as to not be disturbed and to not disturb anyone else. She always sat back there because it allowed her to read whatever she wanted with no strange looks or unwanted questions. For instance: is the history of animagi really that interesting? Or you know you can only turn into one under government supervision, right?

Well, _yes._ Thank you very much, kind sir, now go away.

She wasn't planning on becoming an animagi (though that you can only become one under the watchful eye of the ministry is complete bull), it was just an interesting thing to study. But people saw her books and immediately jumped to conclusions.

That was when he stumbled across her. Though, unbeknownst to her, it was less of a stumbling across and more of a seeking out.

"You're Serena Wendal, right?" The black-haired first year asked, narrowing his stormy grey eyes. He didn't understand why Narcissa was so nice to this pathetic Ravenclaw. She wasn't even a pureblood, she was a half-blood! The worst kind; one whose pureblood parent got married to a muggle. Pathetic little git.

"Um… yes. And you're Regulus Black."

"Well Wendal," he started haughtily, "you don't seem to understand how the magical world works. Your kind isn't even supposed to look at purebloods, much less talk to them."

"Why?" Serena asked, completely and honestly confused. She had spent over an hour last year pondering how faulty the blood system was. Perhaps Regulus could enlighten her as to why.

"Because you're a half-blood. Your mother's a muggle, and therefore you are inferior to purebloods like me and Narcissa."

Serena cocked her head, honestly interested.

"But why are Purebloods superior?"

Regulus paused, his whole world freezing around him. He had been asked this question a lot; but it was always in that _I don't believe you_ tone or the _you snotty little brat_ tone. Sometimes someone asked in the _you poor little boy, you've been tricked_ tone that he really hated. He could ignore these people because they were jealous, or they wanted him to question his beliefs.

This girl, Serena, looked honestly interested. But now, he found he couldn't bring himself to say anything because he _didn't know._ Purebloods were just superior; that's what they _were,_ how they were _born_. But how does one explain that to an ignoramus like Serena Wendal?

"We're just born superior," he scoffed, turning to hide the slight panic on his face. "Besides, it's not like you'd believe me even if I did give you more reasons. That how all of your people are."

Serena figured that by "your people" he meant anyone he thought was below him.

"I'm a Ravenclaw," she said matter-of-factly. "If you can provide me with proof that purebloods are superior, I will accept your premise."

Regulus opened and closed his mouth a few times, not quite sure how to respond.

"Class starts soon," he said stiffly, turning and walking away with one more scathing glare. Serena watched him leave with a smile, not sure if she was amused with his antics or thought he was a total git.

* * *

"Knowledge."

Serena stared blankly at Regulus, who had once more found her hiding in the back of the library a few days after their first encounter.

"...what?"

"Knowledge. That's what makes us superior, when we get to Hogwarts we already have a head start."

Serena thought on that. It couldn't be right, could it? That all purebloods are smarter than others? No, no, wait. There were plenty of logical fallacies in that statement.

"Three things," Serena said as she collected her thoughts. "One, say that initially purebloods do have a head start on everyone else, but if a pureblood was orphaned and grew up not knowing about magic would that take away their superiority? Or what if there was a muggle born who knew more about the magical world than most purebloods their age, would that make them superior?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Okay then, second. Not all purebloods are predisposed to learning at increased rates, so even if they are originally superior due to knowledge they would lose their head start fairly quickly. Take Crabbe and Goyle for example."

"Well, maybe, but-" Regulus tried to cut in, but Serena was on a roll.

"Third, can you tell me what this is?" And she waved her wand, a book in front of her turned into a silver box with two slits in the top, a black knob, two sliders on the side, and some type of black forked tail (she had learned to transfigure one when she realized there was only untoasted bread on the table, then promptly figured out that was useless because there were no plugs in Hogwarts. And also because she could only transfigure things to _look_ like a toaster, it wasn't even metal, just looked silver but felt like paper, not the inner workings of one. The day after, toast had appeared on her plate).

"A... An animal?" Regulus asked, staring at the strange thing.

"No, it's a toaster. A muggle appliance. Those who think muggles are below them can't learn from them at all. Did you know that muggles have learned how to fly without magic?"

Regulus was at a loss for words, but Serena still wasn't finished.

"Given this, it is only logical to conclude that those with exposure to both the muggle and magical worlds are superior in knowledge to those with only one world experience. Also, if those with only magical experience don't bother with muggle studies then they only grow in knowledge of the magical world, while those who only knew the muggle world before learn about the magical world and thereby surpass purebloods in knowledge."

"Wait..." Regulus thought, trying to process the word vomit that had spewed out of the girl's mouth. She was certainly a Ravenclaw. "Are you saying half-bloods are superior?"

"No," Serena shook her head and Regulus feared that he had set her on another word rampage. "The theory of knowledge equaling superiority depends entirely on the background of the person, and while purebloods are more likely to know about magic, muggle-borns are more likely to know about muggles, and half-bloods are more likely to know about both that is by no means the only way it's split up."

After a few seconds of dumbfounded staring, Regulus collected himself.

"You're not going to make this easy, are you?" She gave him that stupid smile. "So…" he pulled out a chair and sat down hesitantly, as if he just _knew_ this was a bad idea. "How do muggles fly?"


	5. Chapter 5

AN: **I've gotten a few questions about Pairings, so if you're interested read this AN.** I have not decided on a pairing yet, or even if I will even write one in. If I do it won't be the main focus of the story. It'll probably be Regulus or Sirius in the long run, simply because I would prefer not to break up any cannon pairings, _but_ if enough of you want otherwise I would be willing to make some concessions. I may have a poll up of the different possibilities at some point, but it will be much, _much_ later in the story because some things (such as Serena's awkwardness, the war, and the two people I personally think she could feasibly be with dying and being sent to Azkaban) kind of get in the way. I do want you to be able to see her interact with the different characters and get a feel for her character enough for you to really make a decision you would like so, like I said, if I do a poll it won't be up for a while.

Here we go, some Marauder action later in the chapter! No Serena interaction with them quite yet, she's still determined to avoid those four after all, but I promise when they do finally begin interacting it will be fun! For the Marauders at least.

* * *

The next Friday would be the first full moon of the school year, and Serena awoke with excitement despite it only being Wednesday. She still hadn't approached the mooncalves, but she had studied them all last year. It was interesting, how much wizards didn't know about the shy beasts. But she had been gathering information, and she thought that she might actually talk to them this year.

Maybe... maybe not this moon cycle, but definitely the next. Yes, of course. The next one.

Her first class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts with the Hufflepuffs and the new Professor: Blahrty. People said the job was cursed, and so far she was hoping was. Which was a very rude thing to hope, but Montie had been an idiot and Blahrty… he didn't possess the most stellar personality.

Maybe he had been picked on as a child because his name was Blahrty.

Despite her distaste for the professor, Serena came in excitedly. Blahrty was mean, yes, but he was also a rather effective teacher. She had learned much more with him than any other teacher, other than maybe McGonagall. Of course, since he had come and taught them spells she had found out she absolutely failed at offensive spells (she couldn't aim to save her life), but she liked learning nonetheless.

The room seemed even more foreboding than usual, and Blahrty wore an expression that made all of the students uncomfortable. It was something none of them could quite describe, being only twelve, but Serena approximated it most closely to a strange mix of disgust and... triumph, perhaps?

"Today, we're not going to be learning out of the books," he sneered, glaring around at the students as if daring them to object. None did. "Who can tell me how to tell a werewolf from a normal wolf?" Many students shifted uncomfortably; it was common knowledge that they weren't supposed to talk about those until the end of third year, not the beginning of second. That wouldn't have bothered most, may have even excited many of them, but the unexpectedly dark topic mixed with the Professor's even darker attitude put every single student on edge.

Sydney slowly raised her hand.

"Physically, werewolves have shorter snouts, more human eyes, and tufted tails," she said quietly, but her voice carried through the room. It was completely silent, as if the students knew this wasn't going to be a normal lesson.

"And how else?" The professor prompted, mouth pulled into a snarl. This time it was a terrified-looking Hufflepuff who answered.

"Normally wolves are more scared of us than we are of them, but werewolves are mindless killers. They'll kill any human they happen to come across in wolf form, even their best friend."

"Exactly. Even in human form werewolves are violent creatures, and any are to be avoided at all times because even in human form they are highly dangerous. If one is attacked by a werewolf in human form the wounds will never fully disappear and they will become as violent and erratic-"

This was wrong.

Without noticing it, Serena's hand shot into the air. She didn't even flinch as she usually would at the glare she received from the Professor as he tried to terrify her into dropping her hand. The class, had it been making any noise before, would have gone silent. No one dared to interrupt Professor Blahrty during one of his lessons. Not even the seventh years. It was said that at his previous job he had turned one of his students into a ferret for mouthing off.

"Wendal?" He prompted with a warning edge to his voice. She took no notice.

"That's incorrect professor. While some werewolves are violent in their human forms as well as wolf forms that depends entirely on who they were before they were bitten. If the nicest person in the world got bit by a werewolf they wouldn't turn into a violent homicidal killer all the sudden; they would just have monthly transformations. The rest of the time they would be exactly as they were... before…" Serena trailed off, noticing what she was doing finally. She paled considerably at the death glare he was giving her.

"Werewolves," he hissed, stalking towards her desk, "are vile, evil creatures through and through," he would have gone on, but before anyone knew it Serena was standing and glaring right back.

"They're still people!" Again, her brain caught up a second after her mouth shot off. "Um… sir."

50 points.

She couldn't believe it; he'd taken away 50 points and sent her to the headmaster's office.

She had never lost points before.

"Gumdrops," she said numbly, still in shock as the Gargoyle jumped to the side and revealed a spiral staircase. Walking up the stairs, she tried to get a hold of herself. Surely it wasn't that bad. Dumbledore was supposed to be a nice guy, right? And the other second years had seen what happened, could they vouch for her and tell the others that the loss of points was unfair?

Oh, who was she kidding? 50 points!

Before she even knocked on the door at the top of the spiral staircase, she was called in. With a gulp, she pushed the door open.

"Hello, Ms. Wendal. I understand that Professor Blahrty sent you. Do you mind telling me what happened?" Dumbledore peered over his half-moon glasses at the twitching girl in front of him. It was obvious that she wasn't used to breaking the rules.

Or, at least, getting caught.

"Um… I…" She clutched her robes to keep her hands from shaking and avoided looking at the headmaster. "He was telling us things that weren't true."

"And?" Dumbledore prompted.

"I... c-corrected him."

"What was he telling you, exactly?"

"Um, he was… saying werewolves are always violent and evil even in their human form, and I think I might have… um… yelled at him…?" She muttered, avoiding eye contact and instead studying the pictures of former headmasters. She should have looked somewhere else, because most of them shook their heads and started muttering about ignorant children.

"Filthy half-breeds," scoffed a particularly vocal picture containing a gray-haired man sitting in a wooden chair. Serena resisted the urge to tell the framed man marked as Phineas Nigellus that Werewolves were in fact their own brand of creature, not some cross between a human and a wolf, so they actually wouldn't be classified as half breeds. Spouting useless facts had always calmed her down, but she figured she had dug herself a deep enough grave to hit solid stone, and decided not to bring out the pick ax to force her way into even deeper trouble.

"Phineas," Dumbledore warned, "and the rest of you as well." He turned back to the girl, who looked even worse now. He wouldn't have been surprised to know she was sure she was going to be expelled. "Serena, that was a very brave and noble thing you did. In fact, it was an act worthy of a Gryffindor. To defend a faction of the wizarding world that most fear and despise, especially since you have absolutely no connection to them, deserves to be rewarded. So for your bravery in the face of adversity, I am awarding Ravenclaw house 75 points."

* * *

By lunch, everyone in the school knew about Serena Wendal, the Ravenclaw who either loves or just stood up for werewolves depending on who was asked. Those who supported her said she stood up for them while those who agreed with the professor called her a werewolf lover.

In those few hours, more people talked to her than had even glanced her direction since she was _six._

Talked being a relative term, seeing as most of the time there were one of two reactions- the positive, in which someone she had never talked to before and often was about a foot taller than her spotted her in passing, made a comment about how cool she was and slapped her on the back (to which she ducked her head blushing furiously and wished they wouldn't draw so much attention). Then the negative, where people she hardly even recognized sneered as she walked down the hall and spat insults at her (this wasn't comfortable by any means, but at least it didn't attract the attention of everyone in the vicinity).

Regulus and Narcissa refrained from commenting directly; they both liked Serena (even if Regulus would never admit it) and didn't want to be on either side of the fight for fear of their family hearing. They simply stayed silent and let everyone assume what they believed and, as Blacks, everyone of course already knew.

The student body, surprisingly, was divided about half-and-half. Ravenclaws and Gryffindors were split about equally, while Slytherins were mostly with the Professor and the Hufflepuffs were mostly with Serena.

James and Sirius were definitely on the "defend the werewolves" side, but mostly because they thought werewolves were cool. Remus assured them that werewolves were definitely not cool, but was still with Serena. Peter would have sided with the Professor had his friends not felt so strongly about it; werewolves were scary.

Apparently, Professor Blahrty had given every class he had the same lesson about how werewolves were evil from 1st year to 7th. But the second year Gryffindors and Slytherins had yet to have the class; they were the last class of the week: Friday afternoon.

* * *

Serena scuttled down the hall Friday morning, keeping to the shadows as much as possible in an effort to be ignored.

When, oh _when_ , would everyone just _forget about it?_

She'd been jinxed in the hallway _five times_ since Wednesday. Luckily nothing _terrible_ , but suddenly collapsing in the middle of a hall in which hundreds of students were walking honestly made her worry about being trampled!

And then, not necessarily a bad thing but definitely not something she wanted all the time, whenever something like that happened at least four random bystanders would just _burst_ into action, which did save her from getting trampled, but it also brought even more attention to her predicament and scared the living daylights out of her _every time_!

Plus there were the pranks. She didn't know who was responsible, maybe it was Potter and Black's group for all she knew, or even Janie. They weren't dangerous, but she wouldn't call them exactly harmless either. Her hair was blue, which she wasn't sure how long would last, but that was fine. Her eyes had gone completely blurry for a few hours, but Flitwick cleared that one up, though her clothes were all missing still. Luckily Sydney, Liz, and Rachel were all magnanimous enough to lend her robes, though since they were all larger than her (as were nearly everyone in the school including most first years) the clothes didn't fit particularly well.

It wasn't as bad as it sounded, really, she reasoned. It was only two small factions that were harassing and protecting her respectively; since she had been largely unknown to the general population before a lot of them may have known her name now but they couldn't name her on sight. And even of those who did, only a small portion felt strongly enough about werewolves to take action at all.

She just hoped they would all forget she existed again in a few weeks.

* * *

Friday afternoon's DADA with Slytherins and Gryffindors was an interesting class; as it started about 3/4 of the students were excited while the other fourth (including James Potter, Sirius Black, and a few other assorted Gryffindors and Slytherins) was glaring daggers. Janie had not bothered to show up.

"Where is Lupin?" Blahrty sneered when the bell rang and he hadn't shown up, not bothering to ask about the absent Slytherin.

"He's sick," Sirius snapped right back, leaning back in his chair. He wasn't happy with Blahrty, sure, but that wasn't why he was annoyed. Remus had been disappearing for a couple days every month since they knew each other and he wouldn't tell his friends what was up! The 'visiting my sick aunt' excuse only worked a few times before people got suspicious; Remus really needed a class in making up excuses.

"Of course," the Professor scoffed, as if he expected nothing less. Which didn't make sense to anyone else; you couldn't plan sickness, and it was painfully obvious that he was sick. Even the Slytherins silently admitted that.

Professor Blahrty started off the class exactly as he had started the others; with a long rant about how werewolves were mindless killing machines even in human form. After he was finally done with that (it took almost half the class, but no one dared interrupt. The last person who did lost 50 points), he continued with the actual lesson.

"There are several ways to identify a werewolf in human form. Can any of you name them?" He asked, glaring around the room as if he didn't think they could. Severus Snape raised his hand. "Snape?"

"They frequently have a lot of scars, and get sick around the full moon." The professor's eyes flicked over to the empty seat beside Peter, but James and Sirius were pretty sure they were the only ones who noticed.

"Good, five points to Slytherin. Anyone else?"

"They drive with their heads out the windows," James quipped, grin on his face as the professor gave him a deadly glare. But it was too late; he had started a chain reaction.

"They circle their bed three times before they lay down," Sirius shouted out.

"They don't own towels, they shake themselves dry!" A Slytherin added, sniggering.

"They get mad at time of the month jokes!" A Gryffindor girl threw out with a laugh, ignoring the irritated glares of her female friends.

"They don't laugh, they _howl_!"

"Everyone _be quiet!_ " Blahrty shouted into the din- half the class silenced immediately. The others began trailing off, but Sirius was _not_ about to let this lesson continue.

Good thing he and James always carried dung bombs, just in case.

Quite a few people got detention for that little stunt, but James and Sirius had succeeded in derailing the whole lesson.

"James, you don't think he was saying what I think he was saying, do you?" Sirius muttered as they trooped out of class.

"I think he was."

"He was what?" Peter asked, looking between his two friends. They looked at each other and made a spontaneous decision.

"Don't worry about it Pete," James smiled. Peter hadn't wanted them to know, but they saw how scared just the thought of werewolves made him. They didn't want to scare him unnecessarily.

After all, what were friends for?

* * *

AN: Those werewolf things were not mine, they were either from or based off of /2009/03/01/werewolftopten/

Also, you've probably noticed, **I am making a conscious effort to not neglect Peter** despite my deep loathing for him. He is _not_ going to be portrayed as evil from birth or neglected by the Marauders or replaced by Serena by any means. If I do my job right, when the betrayal comes you will all feel as if you've had your hearts torn out by your best friend. :)


	6. Chapter 6

AN: So this is a little bit of a filler chapter just focusing on Serena's friends

* * *

"I'm pretty sure I'm right."

"Nope, I've done the research and it says you're wrong."

"You know, you two fight an awful lot," Narcissa frowned, looking between Regulus and Serena. She had come to Serena's quiet little corner of the library that day because she wanted to get away from Lucius Malfoy for a while.

It was still apparently dangerous for the two Blacks to be seen with her (Serena could understand, plenty of people could tell their parents they were affiliating themselves with a werewolf-lover) but most people who traveled this far back into the library weren't the type to hex people in the middle of the halls. Also, Regulus justified that as long as they were arguing he couldn't be accused of siding with her.

Narcissa, being a sixth year, didn't often interact with Serena anyway. Although she had managed to surreptitiously hex one of Serena's harassers. Serena hadn't actually _seen_ her do it, it had been from seemingly nowhere, but Narcissa had donned the Patented Black Smirk when Malfoy's hair had turned flaming red so it was a fair bet.

Malfoy was her fiancée, but Serena thought there honestly couldn't be two people less suited to one another. They were both in Slytherin, and that was where the similarities ended. Well, that and they had the same hair. Like, length and all. And the same kind of pointy face.

It made them look related.

Which was creepy.

And kind of possible, considering the whole Pureblood cousins-marrying-cousins thing to keep the line pure.

Which was creepier.

He was a rather cold person, entirely into pureblood views and a staunch supporter of this "Dark Lord" guy that had appeared in politics two years ago and started amassing followers. Narcissa also thought purebloods were superior, but she was also a rather cheerful and bright person who was willing to at least listen to other's views if not accept them.

"Is it always like this when you talk?" Narcissa asked, not quite sure if she was amused by the two younger students or annoyed at their fighting. The annoyance probably came from spending too much time with Lucius.

"Pretty much," Serena confirmed.

"After all, we're not actually friends. I'm just trying to prove that purebloods are superior," Regulus scoffed at his cousin.

"Then why were you arguing about your taste in music?"

"Eh…" Regulus glanced at her, looking sheepish.

"He was trying to argue that purebloods are superior because they have better music." Narcissa raised an eyebrow, looking very elegant.

"And how long has he been trying to prove purebloods are superior?" She asked, honestly interested.

"Since… a little over a month ago. He started September 19th," Serena informed her. "He's tried knowledge, music, looks, and common sense so far."

"You two really need lives," Narcissa sighed. Serena nodded in agreement, but Regulus opened his mouth to protest.

Serena was beginning to think that was _all_ he did.

"Come on, we're going on a walk."

Narcissa, for one, seemed to have no fear of being "dragged down" by Serena's reputation. That may have been because her engagement to Lucius made her practically untouchable, or because Narcissa herself was a force to be reckoned with when on her bad side.

"Um, okay," they agreed. They walked down the halls flanking Narcissa because, while she had no problem being seen in public with Serena, Regulus didn't want to be associated with her.

"So Serena, I hear you have absolutely no interest in boys."

"Not really," she responded to Narcissa's sudden question with a shrug.

"Well, there's your problem. Girlfriends are good to talk to and all, but boys are what makes life fun."

Regulus was starting to regret coming along.

"See that one over there?" She pointed to a very tall seventh year with brown hair, a square face, and a cleft chin. "He's what we call a hunk."

"I'm leaving," Regulus announced as he walked over to a group of Slytherins containing Narcissa's seventh year fiancée.

"Aren't you not supposed to do that? I mean, since you're engaged to Lucius," Serena asked as Narcissa steered them away from her future husband and towards the astronomy tower.

"You know the difference between betrothed and engaged, right?"

"Well, yes. Betrothed is basically a promise from birth or at least usually very young between two sets of parents that their children will marry. An arranged marriage. Engaged is when the two people to be married have decided to marry; not an arranged marriage. Why?"

Narcissa gave her a significant look that took a moment to decipher.

"Oh, you're not engaged, are you?" Serena asked, wincing.

"No," Narcissa confirmed, settling down on one of the couches and leaning back to look at the darkening sky. It was after dinner, and soon curfew would be upon them but neither particularly cared. After all, Narcissa's betrothed was a prefect and Serena knew enough secret passageways to probably get back without trouble. That's how she'd been avoiding most human beings in the week since the werewolf incident with Blahrty. Unless she ran into Peeves; that menace had nearly got her caught several times. "Lucius tells people we are because then whenever I look like I don't exactly love him it's my fault for saying yes. Besides, arranged marriages are only practiced by the oldest and most noble pureblood families anymore so if most people knew the truth they would pity us, and he hates pity."

"So I guess you don't really have a say," Serena said, sitting next to the older girl and looking up as the first stars peered through.

"Yes. But it's not really that bad, Lucius is more friendly than he seems. I think I could grow to love him. And, if we do have any children, I think we should name them in the Black family tradition; after stars. A boy would be Draco, and a girl would be Lyra."

"You know, those are two of my lucky stars," Serena stated. At Narcissa's surprised and amused look, Serena nodded. "Yep, I have three. Draco, Lyra, and Sirius. Kind of funny, considering that I never want to even talk to Sirius Black. Maybe I should change it to Regulus…"

"I always liked Cassiopeia, but after knowing a lot of people in my family with some of the stranger star names I decided to go simple," Narcissa confided.

They sat in silence, ignoring the fact that it was probably after ten as they stared up at the stars.

"I can't wait for the next full moon," Serena said quietly, so as not to completely disrupt the peaceful moment, looking up at the orb that was now only a quarter and growing smaller each night. "I love those; they make the grounds look amazing."

"I'll have to see that sometime."

* * *

An: Next time, Marauder action!


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I've finally gotten to the Marauders, everyone! Give them a hand!

* * *

"James, he's asleep," Sirius hissed from his bed, beside which was Peter's. Peter was completely out; that kid slept like a log. It was definitely a good thing that they were the only second year Gryffindor boys; the less people that were sleeping in the room the less chance of them getting tattled on.

They didn't think Peter would tattle on them at all- he was their friend, there was just no way he'd betray them like that- but given how terrified he'd seemed at just the thought of werewolves, they wanted to be sure their suspicions were correct before they caused him any undue stress.

"Finally! I thought he'd never fall asleep," James said, jumping out of bed. He tiptoed out of bed looked suspiciously at Remus' empty one.

"We'll probably be too late to see where he goes- the moon's already totally up," Sirius frowned, pointing out the window. Sure enough, the full moon was sitting in the sky, completely unobstructed by clouds or anything else.

"It's a good thing the full moon lasts three nights then, isn't it?" James smirked. "But remember, we're only doing this to see if he _is_ a werewolf, we don't know for sure, so we'll start by looking in the hospital wing."

"And if he's not there?" Sirius asked as they ducked into James' invisibility cloak.

"We call it a night. Then tomorrow morning we see if he's in there, and if he is we hang around after classes and follow him wherever he goes," James said.

Sirius nodded in agreement. It sounded like a brilliant plan to him.

Sneaking down to the hospital wing would have been remarkably easy even without the invisibility cloak because they didn't even see a trace of any prefects doing their rounds. Seeing as it was almost midnight, they supposed it was just too late for that. Once in the wing, they whipped off the cloak; Sirius took the left side of the room and James took the right. There were only seven people currently in the wing, most either too old or too female to be Remus, but James also found a bed that had signs that a patient had either just left or they were expecting one any minute. And since they knew enough about the hospital wing to know it was always cleaned the minute a victe- er, patient, left (heaven knows they had been sent there enough in first year between Slytherins and their own stupidity), they were expecting someone.

Pain killers, sleep aids, and cold pumpkin juice. Oh yeah, this was the bed of a werewolf.

The two boys glanced at each other and nodded; this was going exactly according to plan. Tomorrow, they would be certain.

Everything went according to plan the next day. They told Peter they had something to do- detention for something or other- and he should just feel free to go to sleep before they got back because they would be a while. In the hospital wing, they peered into the bed they had previously pegged as Remus' (it was now surrounded by a privacy curtain) and found they had been correct.

"Bloody-" James muttered when he saw the new injuries his friend had received, but before he could finish his exclamation Sirius had pulled him back and way across the room.

"Shush mate, this cloak makes us invisible, not silent, remember?" Sirius said, echoing the words James had said to him in first year after Sirius had almost got them caught by laughing at a prefect who couldn't find them.

Soon after that little scare, Madam Pomfrey, the young, nice, and very strict matron, came out of her office and pulled back the curtains on Rumus' bed.

"Mr. Lupin, are you ready?" She asked with a sad smile.

"I don't think I'll ever be _ready_ for a full moon," Remus sighed, standing up from the bed anyway. He reached his hand up to scratch one of the bandages on his face, but his hand was smacked away by Pomfrey immediately.

"You may have a special case, Remus, and your scars will never fully disappear, but that doesn't mean I'll let you make them worse," she said tersely. Remus stared at his hand for a moment, seemingly completely caught off guard.

Maybe it was because on a day with a full moon, Madam Pomfrey was treating him exactly like she would any other student instead of a ticking time bomb.

"Thank you, Madam Pomfrey," he smiled, meaning every word.

"Don't thank me yet; I'm sure that by seventh year you'll be entirely done with spending time in the hospital wing. Heaven knows you're in here enough even without your condition," she sighed as she led Remus, Sirius, and James out of the room. The last two unknowingly of course.

As Madam Pomfrey led them outside and across the lawn of the castle, Sirius and James exchanged a glance. Why would they be out here? Surely they didn't just… like, release Remus into the woods for a night, right? That would be bad planning. And what about all those people in Hogsmeade? They don't have a curfew to keep everyone in bed while it's dangerous!

Their concerns were replaced with confusion when instead of going to the forbidden forest they veered away from the lake and towards the whomping willow. Their confusion only grew when Madam Pomfrey picked up a long stick and _poked_ the homicidal tree.

Did she have a _death wish?!_

But instead of viciously attacking the rather likable Matron of the Hogwarts Hospital wing, the tree froze.

Lupin hurried forward and slid into a hole between the roots, followed closely by Madam Pomfrey. After a momentary staring contest, James and Sirius threw off the cloak and both jumped down as fast as they could; Sirius just barely avoided getting his head taken off by one of the newly animated branches.

James couldn't help but make a small noise when Sirius landed on top of him, and the long-haired boy just managed to throw the cloak over them both in their awkward position a moment before the other two glanced back.

"Did you hear something, Madam Pomfrey?" Remus asked from a little ways ahead, turning to look behind him.

"Don't worry about that; you're probably just nervous," Madam Pomfrey smiled, but when Remus turned and continued down the tunnel she sent one more suspicious glance around. The two intruding boys hardly dared to breathe until the two were out of sight.

"Get off me you fat lard," James muttered because he didn't dare do anything louder. Slowly, ever so slowly, Sirius raised himself to standing and moved aside so that James could stand equally slowly and then they quickly ducked under the invisibility cloak.

"That was close," Sirius whispered as they started walking again. After the original antechamber, they had to bend over double to keep going, and soon had to go single file- the cloak barely covered them. It seemed to go on forever, but then the tunnel began to rise and a moment later it twisted.

Then there was a square of light up ahead, with voices coming from inside. Luckily the door had been left open, so Sirius and James could come in without giving the tell-tale sign of opening it.

They had arrived just in time, because Madam Pomfrey was seconds from leaving, and had she come down the tunnel while they were still coming up they would have been caught for sure; there was no way they could have squeezed by her in that narrow of a space.

Remus watched her walk back out before sighing, closing the door, and looking at one of the boarded-up windows as if he could see the moon starting to rise.

Then he started stripping.

Sirius and James took this as an opportunity to look around the room.

It was a dismal place; horrible to be stuck in. There were broken pieces of furniture everywhere, as if some terribly angry muscleman had been trapped inside. And then there were the windows, which were all boarded up, and the stairs that seemed to be almost falling apart. The huge claw marks in the walls weren't even the worst part.

The worst part was the dust- it was thicker in some parts than others, and in the parts that seemed to have the least amount of dust, footprints could be seen. Not human footprints, like they were all leaving now, but those of a wolf.

"AAAAA!" A scream tore their attention from the room to their friend, who was writhing on the ground. Sirius almost surged forward to try and help, but James held him back. Lupin's face was elongating, his bones were cracking and shifting, hair started sprouting from his back as he curled into the fetal position and shrieked.

And then, with a furless but wolf-shaped head, back curved and with tufts of hair sprouting out, and fingernails growing into claws, Remus looked at them.

It was the most terrifying and strange thing either boy had ever seen; like it wasn't only his body that was half wolf, but his mind as well. He was snarling, with an almost hungry look in his eyes, but as he inhaled and caught another whiff of the scent, there was terror as well. He had recognized the scent; that of two of his only friends.

" _Run,"_ he growled, the word almost lost in the feral howl that ripped through him a second later. It took a moment for the boys to process what their friend had said, but after their legs started working again they didn't hesitate. They whipped the cloak off, it would do nothing but slow them down, and flung open the door to the secret passage. In their haste to escape the cage disguised as a house, they didn't close it properly.

* * *

AN: Uh oh. Who knew twelve year old boys weren't the smartest humans in existence? Well, something's gotta happen now. We'll see who Remus the werewolf encounters next chapter...


	8. Chapter 8

Serena sat under her regular tree next to the lake, looking at a book of ancient runes. She was doing research on all of the extra classes that would start next year, to figure out which ones she liked. So far, it was Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy that looked interesting, and Serena hadn't gotten too far into Ancient Runes yet, but they looked promising.

She shifted slightly and the blanket she had brought fell off her shoulders; she pulled it back on with a shiver. Usually if she wasn't going to watch the mooncalves she would just stay inside during full moons, but her roommates, Rachel especially, didn't really appreciate her lighting up the room until some horribly early hour. So if she wanted to read into the night she would sit outside, sometimes using Nox if the moon wasn't bright enough.

A low growl emanated from somewhere to her left. There were words in it, but the voice was so low and rough that they were impossible to decipher.

She didn't want to look. Maybe if she didn't look it would just go away.

But the growl came again, this time accompanied by the sound of something rather large moving towards her.

She looked.

It was a wolf. Maybe it was a werewolf, maybe not. It probably was, because she managed to make out something like _die human_ from the grumbling and the fact that it was a full moon. All of the identifiers had flown out of her head because, well, who cared whether it was a werewolf or not when it was going to kill you?

It stalked forward; Serena scrambled back.

" _No, please, please don't hurt me!"_ Serena whimpered, apparently in the language of werewolves because the thing stopped and cocked its head.

" _Cub?"_ It growled out, eyes narrowing in confusion.

" _Yes! Cub! Lost! Scared!"_ She added, certainly not above begging for her life or playing up her terror. Though in this case it wasn't so much playing up as dumbing down.

" _Cub…"_ It muttered, circling around Serena, who had frozen as soon as it moved forward. It shoved its muzzle in her hair, taking a large sniff. " _Smell human!"_ It growled.

" _No human, no human! Smell human, talk wolf! Wolf cub!"_ She insisted, not daring to move as the werewolf circled again.

" _Hmm…"_ The next growls didn't convey so much words as emotions. Confusion, protectiveness, a little anger at not understanding. It snapped at her, almost nicking her as it circled, and seemed to gain amusement from how she flinched away.

* * *

James and Sirius hid in the bushes outside Hogwarts. They needed to get out from under that cloak, but they needed to stay out of direct sight as well. They could have gone inside, but they also needed a bit of room and the ability to freak out without waking their roommate or getting detention.

They had been sitting in silence for almost half an hour, trying to process what had happened, before the silence was broken.

"He's seriously a werewolf!" James hissed, resisting the urge to scream it at the top of his lungs.

"And he knows we were there," Sirius added, somewhat in shock. Too surprised and scared to even make a serious vs Sirius joke.

"Do werewolves remember what happened when they become human again? Will he know that we know?" James asked, running a hand nervously through his already-messy hair.

"I don't know!" Sirius scowled.

"Maybe we should've listened to that lesson after all…" James muttered. But before Sirius could reply, they heard a sound that chilled them to the bones.

A wolf howling.

Considering what they had just seen, it was no normal wolf.

Sure enough, a wolf with a short snout and a tufted tail stalked into view. It paused as a breeze from the lake passed by, lifting its head to sniff. Eyeing their hiding place in the bushes and then the direction of the lake, the wolf seemed to make a decision. With one last growl, it loped off towards the lake.

Sirius and James, after a moment of terrified silence, began laughing quietly in relief.

"I thought we were dead!" James said, eyes wide but a smile splitting his face.

"Yeah, what a lucky break!" Sirius agreed.

"…Hold on, what would a werewolf choose over two perfectly killable human kids?" James asked, a frown replacing his grin. "Don't werewolves go after humans before anything else?"

There was a thought- one that they really didn't want to acknowledge. If werewolves went after humans but ignored them…

"Are you saying that there's someone else out here?" Sirius asked, face going pale as the moon above.

"Come on!" James ordered, jumping up and running after the werewolf. Hopefully the other person or people would have their wand and be able to fend the werewolf off until they got there to help.

It didn't even occur to them that they had no idea how on earth to fight a werewolf. Especially without hurting it.

Sirius would have liked to think that, as a Gryffindor, he would jump in to save anyone at the first sign of danger. No hesitation, no second thoughts, just a lot of yelling and jinx-slinging. But as soon as the wolf came into sight he froze. It was under the tree by the lake, circling a girl and nipping at her as it did.

He risked a glance at James, who wasn't faring much better than him. He was even shaking a bit, hand clasped around his wand but not actually doing anything.

What were they doing? They couldn't see the blond girl's face, but she looked like she might have been a first year and she was most likely looking absolutely terrified. And here they were, letting her be terrified by the werewolf and staying safely out of its way.

But then, the wolf spun to look in their direction. All the playful nipping- was it playful, or just playing with its food?- halted and it growled.

The girl, seeming to know what was happening, reached out to the wolf and yipped.

Like a little dog.

The Wolf growled, and the girl whined in response. Like a cub calling out to its parent.

Had they not been so terrified they would have been confused, because a moment later the wolf had circled the girl protectively and then lay down.

* * *

"Could she talk to him?" Sirius whispered as they raced back to their dorm. The girl seemed perfectly fine, even safe, with Remus so after watching them for a few minutes (better safe than sorry) the two had decided to call it a night.

"I think so, but how's that possible? I've heard of parseltongues, but no one that could talk to other animals," James responded, not quite sure what to think. As far as he knew, it was impossible.

"We'll ask Remus when he gets back to normal."


	9. Chapter 9

Serena awoke at 6 O'clock in the morning, wondering why her back hurt. And why she was sitting up. And why she was outside. And- was that a wolf?

The previous night came back and Serena vowed never to go outside under a full moon again.

She looked up to the sky and, much to her relief, saw the sun beginning to rise and the moon starting to set.

Of course, right as she felt relief the werewolf (for now that it wasn't about to murder her she could tell) awoke with a horrifying howl.

There were no words in the howl; it was a scream.

" _It's gonna be okay! Don't worry, you'll be alright in just a minute,"_ she said, though as the wolf writhed, bones cracking and fur sucking itself back into its skin, she really wasn't sure.

She wanted to look away.

She couldn't.

The wolf was looking more and more humanlike; she should let him keep his secret.

But she couldn't, because he was just in so much pain.

When the boy finally stopped thrashing, Serena immediately threw her blanket over him and then ran to the castle as fast as she could.

She had tried not to see his face, but she had.

The werewolf was Remus Lupin, the bookwormish Gryffindor that hung out with those black-haired troublemakers.

* * *

"Where have you been all night?"

"Um… Outside?"

"Outside?!"

"What on earth were you doing outside?!"

"It was a full moon, right? There are supposed to be werewolves in the woods you know."

Serena flinched away from her three roommates. Two of which were yelling and worried, while Liz calmly informed her that she was lucky she didn't get torn apart by werewolves. Which, considering what she was currently school-infamous for, may have been a very ironic way to have died last night. It hadn't occurred to her during the event, but that really would have been unfortunate for the werewolf community.

"I fell asleep outside, and no one woke me up…" Serena said, not lying. Of course, that had happened _after_ the werewolf attacked, but still. "We need to get ready for classes…"

* * *

Remus Lupin came to his senses with a jerk, because he was not on the floor of the shrieking shack like he usually was.

He was on grass, under a blanket. That was definitely _not_ normal.

Jolting to a sitting position, he looked around in a frenzy. He was somehow under the tree next to the lake, covered in a rather warm and fluffy blue blanket decorated with animals. An Ancient Runes book lay nearby.

He would try to figure that out later; right now he was lying naked under a blanket that didn't belong to him out in the middle of Hogwarts' grounds. The first thing he needed to do was get back to the shrieking shack and his clothes.

When he had done that, running back to the tree wrapped in the blanket, he looked at his newly acquired items with trepidation.

He couldn't remember much.

The books all said that werewolves could remember everything they did during a full moon once they returned to human form, but that wasn't true for Remus. Sometimes he could- usually when he did something horrifying like tearing himself to shreds with his claws.

He did remember something though. Right as he was transforming, a scent on the air. A terribly familiar one. But James and Sirius couldn't have really been there, could they?

He would figure that out later. Right now, he had to remember what had happened to the person he seemed to get this blanket from.

The book didn't help; he checked the inside for a name and found out that it was from the library. The blanket wouldn't help either. He couldn't very well go around asking whose it was.

It wasn't so much the objects that had him worried as the manner in which he found them. The blanket had been draped over him as if he had been sleeping, no rips or tears at all, not even blood. In all his years as a werewolf, he couldn't remember ever just laying peacefully under a piece of fabric. He was always either destroying his surroundings or himself.

The book had been discarded as if the person it belonged to had been running away (paper-down and open on the ground, several of the pages bent), which completely contradicted the story the blanket told. Why would a werewolf ignore a running person to curl up under the blanket they left behind? And on top of that, the blanket must smell like human so he should have torn it up in a heartbeat!

Perhaps he found the other student (it had to be a student because the teachers undoubtedly would have been there to glare at him and ask how he escaped when he woke up. That and the book was Ancient Runes for beginners, and most of the teachers are past that level) right as the moon was going down, and as he turned back into a human the student flung their blanket on him as a distraction and ran.

It still didn't make any sense, but he decided that he would pretend it did for his own sanity.

There was a knock on the secret door and, in a split-second decision, he shoved the blanket and the book out of sight.

"Come in," he called, not even bothering to try and mask the confusion, fatigue, and slight panic in his voice. He always sounded like that after a transformation; it would have been more suspicious if he hadn't.

As he suspected, it was Madam Pomfrey with some pumpkin juice and a dreamless sleep potion.

What he didn't expect was her to stop in shock as soon as she saw him.

He looked down at himself, trying to determine what had made her look at him like that. Clothes, check. Body parts, check. He seemed to be all in one piece. Why was she so shocked?

"Mr. Lupin, you look much better than usual," she said with a smile, walking forward once more.

Ah, yes, that would do it.

He didn't have any of the usual injuries, and the bags under his eyes were smaller than they were most of the time. He hadn't noticed before because of his strange circumstances upon waking up, but he actually felt a lot better than he usually did.

* * *

AN: I realize that the sun wouldn't logically rise that early assuming Hogwarts is in Scotland or somewhere close. However, the later the sun rises the more likely someone dips by and sees a small second year and a werewolf chilling under a tree. We can't have that, now, can we?

Remus hides the blanket and book because though he can't exactly recall the night before subconsciously he knows his theories are wrong and he doesn't want the girl he met to get in trouble after what she went through the night before. Also, if anyone was wondering, _if_ Serena ever runs into Lupin the werewolf again he will remember her scent and link it with " _cub"_ so she wouldn't have to work so hard to convince him she's a wolf the second time around.


	10. Chapter 10

AN: I'm sure you've noticed that at this point that this is largely a collection of loosely-related oneshots rather than a coherent story. Don't worry, third year is when a real plot-thing begins to come of this.

Also, sorry that all the Marauder stuff so far has been angsty or deep-conversation, but the point of this year is them finding out about Remus' Lycanthropy and being buds. I promise I will get to funny Marauder shenanigans!

* * *

They knew something was wrong as soon as they saw Remus for the first time after their encounter in the shack.

They had hoped he wouldn't remember, or at least think he had imagined them. But as soon as they saw him, they knew he knew the truth.

That wasn't the problem though. Remus knew Sirius and James had a tendency to stick their noses in other people's business and run into things they weren't supposed to. Regardless, they expected him to be angry with them for doing it to him. Or at least angry that his secret had gotten out. And then they would swear never to tell anyone, by an unbreakable vow if necessary, and everything would be okay again.

But that wasn't what happened.

Remus Lupin, whom they had never seen scared by any situation since the day they had met (the closest they had seen was mild irritation at the thought of detention), was absolutely terrified.

As soon as he saw them, his eyes went wide and his face went pale. Before either black-haired boy could get a word in edgewise, Remus had excused himself and rushed out of the room.

"Guys, what happened with Remus? He's been acting jumpy, and as soon as you two walked in he totally flipped out!" Frank, their friend (though not quite close enough to ask to join their pranking group) and one year senior asked with a slight glare. Remus had always been the one closest to Frank of the four second years, so in event of an argument he would probably take the werewolf's side.

"We… we did something we shouldn't have, and ended up finding something out that Remus didn't want us to know," James said, and for the first time since they had met he actually looked sorry.

"We want to say sorry about it, but we can't even get near him!" Sirius added with an irritated scowl.

There were many, many things Frank could think of that someone could want to keep secret from their friends. Some of them were utterly ridiculous, and he doubted it was any of those because Remus seemed legitimately scared and the other two boys looked truly sorry. He didn't think James Potter and Sirius Black would sincerely say sorry to _anyone_ , even a friend, unless they had almost caused someone severe injury.

"Well, you better go find him and set this straight then. I expect you all to be best friends again by lunch time."

It was a bit weird, getting lectured by someone just one year older than them. Especially since they were a little bit taller than him.

Also, Frank was generally a rule-abiding fellow, but he didn't usually lecture like that.

Then they both realized that Frank hadn't been focusing on them; since he started talking, he had been glancing out the corner of his eye at a fourth year Gryffindor named Alice.

"Do you like her?" Sirius immediately prodded, quicker on the uptake than James who was still trying to figure out what Frank could have been looking at because it couldn't just be some girl. Frank's cheeks tinted red, and Sirius grinned because he knew he had guessed correctly. James, however, made a face. He was of the opinion that, while girls didn't have cooties, relationships were just useless.

Seriously, why date when you could spend all that wasted time literally pranking the ears off of people?

Frank sputtered indignantly for a few moments, suddenly regained his composure, and parted with "You two had better make up with Remus."

And suddenly, they were reminded of why they had been talking to Frank in the first place. Both boys frowned. Honestly, they didn't know what to do. They had been planning on Remus being a bit angry at them, at worst, not absolutely terrified at what they would do with the information they had gathered. Really, it hadn't even occurred to them before that being a werewolf was actually a big deal.

"Hi James. Hi Sirius," Peter yawned as he walked into the hall. He had slept in, he always slept later than his friends, and had no idea of Remus' secret or the turmoil between his three friends.

"Hi Pete," James sighed. Sirius didn't even bother with words, merely grunting slightly at the greeting.

"What's wrong?" Peter asked, looking between the two in confusion. They had been perfectly fine last night; what could have happened?

James and Sirius shared a pensive look. They wanted to tell Peter; he was their friend, after all, and they trusted him. But they were already in deep trouble with Remus, and spreading around his secret probably wouldn't help them reconcile.

"It's kind of a secret," Sirius whispered, leaning in so no one else could hear, "so we'll tell you tonight when no one else is around."

Peter was confused about what on earth could be so secret and happen in one night while Remus was sick, he was asleep, and the other two were in detention, but nodded anyway. After all, not many things could make James Potter sigh and Sirius Black grumble.

"Go ahead and eat, Pete. We've already finished, but we'll meet you at class," James smiled, shooing Peter along and then dragging Sirius out of the room.

"Aww, James, I'm actually hungry you know!" Sirius complained, but he stopped short at the look on his friend's face.

"We have to find Remus, convince him we won't tell and that we don't hate him, and ask if we could pretty please tell Peter his secret without Peter figuring out anything is wrong _all_ before tonight! We don't have _time_ to eat!" James steamed, summing up their day rather effectively.

"Oh, right," Sirius sighed, not looking forward to any of those conversations one bit. Well, maybe when they tell Peter that Remus is a werewolf, if he takes it well. Whatever happens, though, his face will definitely be hilarious. "So where would Remus go to get away from us?"

"The library," James stated immediately.

"Good, we'll start there," Sirius said, taking the lead and turning left down a corridor. After about two minutes, he came to a sudden stop. "Uh, James? Do you know where the library is?"

"No, I thought you knew!" James yelled, exasperated that they had been wasting precious time getting lost.

"Excuse me," Sirius stopped a passing girl with a smile, "can you tell me where the library is?"

The girl, who was rather short and had long brown hair, nodded.

"Just follow this hall that way," she pointed back the way they had come, "and turn left at the portrait of Francis Raegmon, he's the old black-haired man that glares at everyone, it should be right in front of you after that."

There were plenty black-haired portraits, many of them old, and every single one glared as the two boys walked past. Though that probably had less to do with the fact that someone was there than _who_ exactly was there. Even some of the pictures had been affected by their pranks, after all, so not many of the canvas people liked them much.

"This is him, right?" James asked, spotting one such painting opposite of a hallway.

"I don't know, he looks exactly like the other forty," Sirius griped. He always got a bit snappy when he was hungry.

"Well, this one's across from a hallway," James mused, turning to look down the hall. The girl had said the library would be right there in front of them once they turned, so logically he would be able to see it if-

" _Maybe_ ," the portrait snapped, "you could _ask_ him if he's who you're looking for!"

"Oh, uh, yeah, is your name… uh…" James put a hand in front of his mouth so that the portrait couldn't see it but Sirius could and mouthed, _Fran? Frank? Fred?_

"Is your name Francis?" Sirius asked, giving James a look that said something along the lines of _it's only been two minutes. You should be able to remember that._

"It _might_ be," the man sneered.

"I hope it's not, because that's a really girly name," Sirius shot right back, pulling out his little-used Patented Black Sneer before turning around and marching down the corridor opposite the now affronted painting.

"You need some food, mate," James grinned. Before Sirius could make a snide remark about that too, James pointed at a large set of double doors straight ahead. "There! That's the library, right?" Sirius shrugged noncommittally. "Fat lot of good you are. Come on, let's check."

The two of them threw the doors open with no regard for library protocol, saved from the cacophonous noise and eminent lecture only by the charm that slowed the doors on their own. James didn't notice, but Sirius (who had thrown his door extra hard to express his irritation at both missing breakfast and Remus' honestly ludicrous behavior) was disappointed.

He had no more than a second to fix the doors with the Patented Black Glare (wow, he was using a lot of the patented Black expressions he had used only sparingly since meeting James) before James yelled, "Remus!"

* * *

Remus, who had been staring silently and uncomprehendingly at his charms textbook for the last half hour, tried desperately to steady his breathing. He was about two seconds away from having a panic attack, something he hadn't had a problem with since meeting James and Sirius and Peter.

Because he knew he could count on them.

But now they knew.

Now they _knew_ , and they would hate him.

The only three friends he had ever had would _hate_ him, and he would be alone again, but this time everyone would know his secret, and they would _all_ hate him.

He was used to that. He could deal with that.

But- but James? And Sirius? And Peter?

He could deal with the world of faceless strangers hating him, but he didn't know if he could deal with _them_ hating him.

Sure, they had sided with that girl (what was her name? Sara? Serifina?) about werewolves, but that was hypothetical. Hypothetical werewolves and hypothetical opinions that didn't matter in the real world, not one bit. When faced with a werewolf, a real werewolf, not a hypothetical one, they would no longer think they were " _wicked_ ". Not in the slang use of the word anyway.

His eyes skimmed the page in front of him, seeking for anything to hold on to, to use as a base, to help him ignore these feelings.

Nothing. He couldn't even read the page. What charm was it even talking about? Wingardium Leviosa? Jellylegs Jinx?

The doors of the library flew open, but Remus didn't so much as blink. He didn't even notice. Not until he heard a voice that had him up on his feet and turning the other way before he could think.

"Remus!" James yelled.

Oh Merlin, he _yelled_. Was he so mad that Remus hadn't told him about the secret? The scarred boy was on his feet and heading to the back of the library. No matter there was no exit back there. No way could Remus get past his two quidditch-playing friends, so he headed anywhere else. Maybe he could circle back and escape when they rushed after him.

Unfortunately, it seemed his friends - were they his friends still, though? – were too smart for that.

They flanked him, and cornered him in the back of the library with his back to the wall between the common books and the restricted section. He was pale and sweating like mad, eyes wide but fixed resolutely on the floor between him and his captors.

He wouldn't see the looks on their faces. The hate.

"Remus," James nearly whispered.

Remus flinched like he had just been slapped.

"C'mon Remus, let's talk about this," James continued with a pained wince. They had done this to him, to their friend, he just hoped they could fix it.

"Not here though, back in our dorm," Sirius added quickly, glancing around. They had drawn a fair bit of unwanted attention from all their running around and yelling, but the person he noticed most was the one sitting in a table not ten feet away. A person with shaggy black hair and stormy grey eyes who was only a year beneath them.

Yes, Regulus was here. Regulus, who Sirius had desperately tried to break from his parents' grasp, but every time he did just seemed to cling harder to his beliefs. Regulus who was the perfect pureblood, and would do who knows what horrible things with the information he could gather from this talk. He was seated with another student, a little blond girl who Sirius didn't spare a glance to.

"Please Remus," James pleaded, catching on to Sirius' line of thought without a pause, "just come back to the dorm and let us talk about this. After that- you can… I don't know, forgive us, or never speak to us again, or whatever you want, but _please_ hear us out first."

 _Forgive us_.

Forgive them? Did they… think they had done something wrong?

Well, they had, obviously, with the whole stalking thing, but… did they think _he_ was mad at _them_?

Maybe… Maybe they… _didn't_ hate him after all?

Or maybe it was a trick.

Remus shoved that last thought violently from his mind- James and Sirius were not ones to beat around the bush or hold back their thoughts. If they didn't have any shred of care left for him, they would have flat out told him, probably announced his lycanthropy to the world, and promptly pranked him to oblivion by now.

Two shakey breaths passed, Remus still refusing to lift his eyes from the ground, before he nodded. A tiny bob of the head, easily missed, but the two boys had been looking for it, and Remus heard them both let out the breaths they had apparently been holding.

"To the common room!" Sirius declared, regaining some of his usual bravado. He led the way out of the library with only a glance at his brother.

"We have potions in ten minutes," Remus protested weakly, following anyway as James grabbed his books from the table he'd been sitting at.

"I'd say this is a bit more important than ol' Sluggy, mate," James grinned. Remus still hadn't looked up from the floor, but he could hear the grin in James' voice.

"It's not like he'd ever give James or me detention anyway," Sirius stated neutrally. This was irritating to him, Remus knew, for several reasons. The primary of which was that he and James were having a detention contest (in which Remus and Peter were technically participating but no one thought they would win because they didn't even want to). Second to that was just the idea of Slughorn himself; Sirius didn't much like Slughorn, because the man was head of Slytherin house. That alone wouldn't have been enough to warrant the teen's disdain though; it was more the fact that the man would not stop remarking about how much of a shame it was that such a talented Black was in any house but his own. This would have flattered most people, or been just a bit irritating, but for Sirius it was a reminder that he was the outcast of his family, and seemed a constant assault on his decision to argue his way into Gryffindor.

Remus stayed silent, despite the urge to say something, _anything_ , that had even the slightest chance of cheering the rogue Black up.

Right now he had to focus on not breaking down before his only friends even turned on him.


	11. Chapter 11

AN: Okay, more **Marauder Drama!** The next few things focused on the Marauders are also dramatic/feely/not fun **but** I have a special just fun one written for the future because these boys _are_ only twelve and secretly all beautiful and kind humans. Next year and beyond they get much more character and everything because that's when Serena finally meets them, but I hope these snippets keep you all sated!

* * *

Remus had been sitting, still and silent, for at least a minute. He was curled into himself on his bed, leaning against his headboard and looking anywhere but at his roommates, who were sitting on their respective beds.

Except, not Peter. Only Sirius and James.

Where was the fourth of their group? Had he already decided that Remus, being a werewolf, was irredeemable? After everything they'd been through... He had thought them friends.

"We haven't told anyone," James said finally, breaking the silence. Remus didn't look up. He wasn't surprised by that, but it was only a matter of time before they did.

"Not even Peter," Sirius added. That, finally, got Remus to react.

"He doesn't know?" Remus asked incredulously. But… they were a group, a team, they didn't keep secrets. Well, Sirius and James and Peter didn't. Remus could never have truly been part of their group because he hadn't trusted them with his secrets.

"He speaks!" James flashed a grin before continuing more seriously, "he wasn't with us when we found out, and we don't want to lie to him, but it's not our secret to tell so if you don't want him to know we promise we won't tell."

"We'll even make an unbreakable vow, just as long as you promise not to be mad at us," Sirius offered, hand over his heart as if already swearing it.

"…You really don't…." Remus faded off, and the other two looked at him expectantly. "You don't… hate me?"

The slight hurt that bloomed across the two boy's faces after a brief moment of confusion was completely genuine.

It had occurred to them, of course, that maybe Remus thought they were scared of him now, or that they were mad at him for keeping this huge secret, but it hadn't even crossed either of their minds that he would think they could ever actually _hate_ him.

"I'm a Black," Sirius frowned suddenly, "do you hate me?"

"Of course not!" Remus responded immediately, bolting straight up with a concerned, almost insulted look, "you didn't choose to be a Black, you chose to be a Gryffindor."

Sirius and James let that sink in a moment, giving their mutual friend smug and pointed looks in response.

Realizing the correlation, color slowly rose up Remus' neck to the tips of his ears.

"It's not the same," he denied, "you aren't liable to murder everyone you know on a whim!"

"I dunno Remus, I've heard _plenty_ of stories about those crazy purebloods and their homicidal tendencies," James piped up cheerfully.

"I _have_ told you about my cousin Bella, yeah? Now _she's_ nuts," Sirius added conversationally.

Remus took a moment to stare uncomprehendingly at his two friends who were, apparently, against all logic, _still_ his friends.

"You two can't be serious."

"Of course not," James replied seriously, "I'm James. Only he's Sirius."

* * *

The others had been acting weird all day.

Peter had noticed, but he hadn't said anything about it. He figured it had something to do with that secret Sirius mentioned before breakfast, and knew that he'd be told this afternoon. Their group didn't keep secrets (except Remus going to "visit his sick aunt" every month because even Peter could tell that was a lie, but they knew he must have a good reason so that was different), so he would know what was going on soon enough.

Still, how they were acting was a bit worrying.

First, Remus practically sprinted past him in the hall on the way to breakfast without so much as looking at him. Then when he found James and Sirius the two of them had looked grumpy and more than a little bit lost, which had worried him a bit. But James said not to worry, and Peter couldn't think of a single situation the combined minds of James Potter and Sirius Black couldn't get out of unscathed, so he let it be.

Then they were late for class.

Which, okay, wasn't actually a big deal. What would've been a big deal was them showing up for class _on time_. But usually if they were planning on being late ( _fashionably_ late, Sirius always insisted) they would clue Peter in and the whole group would show up five minutes late in loud conversation. Except for Remus of course. Remus would always be on time.

But Remus wasn't on time, and the trio didn't walk in five minutes late, they walked in thirty minutes late (which Sirius would have said was just _slobby_ , not fashionable at all), and there was no purposefully loud conversation or smirking. They didn't seem unhappy, in fact they all seemed quite pleased, but in a quiet sort of way.

And then, for the rest of their classes, the three boys kept glancing at him. When they thought he wasn't looking, mostly, but Peter had always had this second sense about being watched; he got all itchy and twitchy. They looked at him like they were nervous, but Peter couldn't think of a single thing he could ever do to make his three amazing friends nervous.

So Peter was definitely confused, but since Sirius had promised he would be told that night he stayed quiet.

* * *

They had been sitting in silence for three minutes.

Each boy sat on his respective bed. Peter had asked about the secret and then James had agreed this was the perfect, _safe_ , place to tell it since no one would judge at all. He then nodded at Remus, who went pale and tried not to hyperventilate.

Which brought them to where they were now. Peter was looking between his three friends in confusion, trying to piece something, _anything_ , together. Sirius and James seemed to be trying to remain casual, but James was less successful as he was intermittently giving Peter nervous looks and Remus encouraging smiles.

Far as Peter could tell, this was definitely Remus' secret. Probably the reason he went to "visit his sick aunt" every month. He wondered how Sirius and James had found out.

"C'mon Rem," James prodded gently, "Peter's part of the group, he wouldn't tell anyone."

"Yeah, Pete's our friend. He wouldn't judge you," Sirius agreed wholeheartedly, Patented Black Grin splitting his face.

Remus looked at Peter, trying to discern if what his other friends were saying was the truth. Peter sat looking confused and concerned, eyes flitting between the three of them rapidly. They were right. Peter was his friend, and Sirius and James had taken it well… and if Peter… didn't want to be associated with him after this… well, he'd still have the other two, right?

Right. Definitely. No question.

"Yeah," Remus gulped, "yeah, okay." Torn between needing to see his friend's reaction and dreading it, he compromised by focusing on the ground in front of the small boy's bed. "Peter, I'm… a werewolf."

If it hadn't been for the seriousness of the room, Peter would have laughed. If Remus wasn't avoiding looking at him and the other two were staring in anticipation, he would have thought they were joking. But halfway through a surprised chuckle, the sound caught in his throat.

The monthly sickness, how he stared intently down at his paper whenever Blahrty went on one of his werewolf rants, how Blahrty seemed to hate Remus for no reason, the mysterious injuries that appeared without cause and Remus refused to talk about, the nightmares that Remus wouldn't mention.

Peter's face went paper-white, eyes bugging out, choking on his own cut-off laughter.

"W-what?" He squeaked, flailing, scrambling back. He forgot, momentarily, that he was on his bed, which had an edge a few feet above the ground, and fell off with a strangled shout.

James and Sirius were a little amused at the show. They weren't too worried; it had taken them almost half of the night to calm down after they'd found out, surely Peter would see reason after some time to let it sink in.

Remus just closed his eyes, head bowing. Well, two out of three wasn't all that bad, right? And maybe, even if Peter never wanted to speak to him again, they could get him to promise not to tell anyone?

"You're serious?" Peter's small voice came from where he'd fallen behind his bed.

"I sure am," Sirius replied just as James said, "well, he is."

The joke gave Peter, who had been preparing to run (where? Who cares? Anywhere but trapped in a room with a werewolf!), pause. That was the Sirius and James he knew; they always knew how to deal with anything. They were probably at least the smartest Gryffindors in their class, if not in the _school_ , wouldn't they know whether or not to associate with werewolves?

He was still on the fence, pausing between standing and facing this or running as fast and far as he could, when their words came back to him.

 _Peter's part of the group_

 _Pete's our friend_

He had never heard anyone call him a friend before.

And… wasn't Remus part of the group too? Maybe, being a werewolf, he'd never been part of a group either. Maybe he was just as scared and alone as Peter had been before.

Peter knew Remus. They'd been friends since school started. Remus wasn't a mindless killer, he was a bookworm that loved chocolate. Remus wasn't a werewolf pretending to be his friend, he was Peter's friend who happened to be a werewolf.

Taking a deep breath, willing his erratic heartbeat to calm down (do werewolves have enhanced hearing while human? Could Remus hear his heartbeat?), Peter gathered his strength and stood.

"Okay," he squeaked, not quite able to get his voice to normal, "J-just promise not to go crazy and try to kill all of us when it's not a full moon."

Remus' head shot up and he looked at Peter for the first time since the confrontation had begun, expression one of shock and hurt. Go crazy? He wouldn't go crazy! What did Peter think…

Then he noticed that Sirius and James were grinning and the hurt faded away, and Remus was just shocked. Because that was Peter forgiving him for being a werewolf. It wasn't a particularly _tactful_ way, but no one else in their group was tactful either.

"Yeah," he nodded quickly, wondering what on earth he had ever done to deserve such amazing friends as this.

"Well now that's out of the way," Sirius interrupted cheerfully, "James and I have decided that we need a name."

Remus and Peter looked at the other two uncomprehendingly.

"You know," James expounded, "a group name, since now we're a real team with no secrets. Think about it."

"I vote for Sirius and the Jokes," Sirius inputted, drawing groans from the others.

"How about Quadruple J?" James suggested.

"James, you are the _only_ one with J in your name," Remus protested.

"I know that," James nodded.

"Dumbledore's angels!" Sirius shouted like it was some kind of revelation.

"We have nothing to do with Dumbledore," Remus shot down again. "Besides, it's almost midnight. It's time to go to sleep."

"Where's your sense of adventure, Remus?" James muttered, but all of them got under their covers anyway.

"The Hogwarts… Troupe," Sirius's voice came from the darkness.

" _No_ Sirius. Go to sleep," Remus groaned, ignoring how happy he felt just from hearing Sirius' voice and the others stifled laughter.

"Hogwarts Hooligans!" James cried in response, sounding self-assured as always.

Remus groaned. This was shaping up to be a very long week.


	12. Chapter 12

"An' that's how I picked up Fang, the coward" Hagrid finished his story cheerfully, petting the dog's head affectionately.

" _Good, good,_ " Fang rumbled, leaning almost his full weight onto the large man.

"That was really dangerous, Hagrid," Serena said, but she grinned as well. By this time both Hagrid and Serena knew that both of them were less than sane when it came to animals; insane, others had called both of them multiple times.

She was trying to find a way to tell Hagrid about her ability. She suspected he wouldn't mind it (would probably think it was awesome, actually), and in all honesty she could up and tell him at any moment with little to no repercussions… but still, she was scared. Any little excuse to keep the secret just a while longer.

Hagrid smiled proudly and took a bite of a rock-cake. Serena stuck with water.

She had been spending more and more time with Hagrid in the last month and a half, since the werewolf incident with Blahrty. The prankers and hexers had been slowly escalating since the first week; there had been a solid few hours yesterday in which she was barfing up slugs. Really, Hagrid's cabin and classes (where she sat next to Janie in the classes they shared and awkwardly beside her dorm mates in the others) were the only two places she really counted on peace anymore. Except DADA, of course. She actually hadn't been to that class in a week; she'd just been looking at the textbook and hoping she'd pass the exams. It wasn't going well. She'd discovered she wasn't great at Defense.

"Ah- no' again," Hagrid frowned, happening to glance out the window of his little hut on the grounds.

"Not what again?" Serena asked, also looking out but seeing nothing out of the ordinary.

"It's tha' Slytherin who keeps tryin'a sneak inta the forest," Hagrid replied already standing, "I'll be back in jus' a minute."

Serena stayed sitting when Hagrid left, absentmindedly petting Fang as her mind wandered.

Who could the Slytherin be? Did she know them? Regulus wasn't the type to sneak into the forest; he was a rule-follower just like herself. Well, actually, he was even _more_ of a rule-follower than her. He believed rules were set in stone while she thought they were much closer to guidelines. But it could very well be Janie.

That man, even only twelve years old, was going places. He was wickedly smart, and he used every single IQ point to mess with others. He was practically anti-rules, as far as Serena could tell, and impulsive.

Even if his proudest achievement was being taller than a 4' 11'' girl. Though having just hit five feet over the summer himself (he had mentioned that in his letter, actually, and Serena suspected that was the reason he actually wrote because he was too smart to need help with homework) she supposed she understood the sentiment.

Still, he was her friend. Or, she counted him as a friend. The only real interaction they had with each other was sitting beside each other during classes, which she noticed most people didn't really count as friendship, so maybe she was just an acquaintance to him. He was surprisingly helpful when it came to gathering information, but he also seemed to base everything on some sort of swap system and didn't believe in signs of good faith.

She'd figured that out last year, when she'd mentioned the polite tunnel she'd found out of the school and he had immediately informed her about the kitchens he'd found. Then he claimed that his was more helpful, so she owed him another bit of info. That was why they both knew more about Hogwarts secret passages than most other students, probably, though he did most of the finding (sometimes some convenient passage appeared when Serena was almost caught in a late-night run, but that didn't happen often) because he seemed determined to scrub down every inch of the castle for secrets before his third year. She currently owed him three favors (based on his system), which he would probably cash in the form of help writing papers (which she had told him she would help without a favor, but he insisted).

" _Peeeeet meeeeee_ ," Fang whined, interrupting her train of thought as he nearly crushed her beneath his bulk.

" _Okay, okay,_ " Serena yipped softly back, rubbing behind the large dog's ears.

It didn't really matter anyway. Janie, if it was him, might talk himself into six consecutive nights of detention rather than just one (he had an extreme case of broken brain-to-mouth filter and an unfortunate tendency to look shifty at the worst moments), but it wasn't like she could do anything about it. Plus she suspected he _liked_ getting detention, because it gave him an excuse to wander around after dark.

When Hagrid returned (it _had_ been Janie; he got off with nothing because he was a great sprinter and Hagrid didn't see this as an offense worthy of being chased down for) they continued swapping stories about the most interesting creatures they'd come across. Granted, the most interesting Serena had seen was a crup and Hagrid had seen legitimate dragons before, but he listened anyway.

They talked for a few hours, moving on to several topics including how to take care of Flitterby Moths (of which Hagrid owned a whole swarm), before Serena finally bid him farewell.

She had plenty of time before she needed to be back at the dorms, so she decided to take her time and walk the perimeter of the forest instead of braving the halls. It wasn't nearly as terrifying up close as it looked from far away; in fact, it was quite beautiful the way the light filtered through the farther-apart trees.

Trees grow towards the sun, Serena knew. That must be why the forest got more twisted and dark the deeper you went in; closer trees meant less sunlight getting through and more plant-aerobics as the greens (browns, yellows, all the other colors too) attempted to catch any amount for themselves.

Staring into the foliage, Serena noticed movement.

Thinking it may be some new type of animal, throwing caution to the wind as she was want to do when curiosity was involved, Serena crept after the vague movement flitting between the trees.

It took only moments for her to realize it wasn't an animal at all, but a fellow student and a Ravenclaw to boot. He was older than her- or at least significantly taller- with blond hair. It took a moment longer to identify him, but even after she had she continued to follow. Both out of curiosity about where he was going and just to watch him, which she realized sounded creepy, but couldn't think of a different way to put it.

The blond sixth year didn't seem to walk like normal people- he almost glided. Serena knew several people that seemed to glide. One was Lucius Malfoy, who cut through the air like a shark through water, moving in direct lines towards his prey. Another was Sirius Black, who slunk around like a cat who'd just found out how to open the milk jug by itself, smug and circling. The last was Severus Snape, who flitted from shadow to shadow as if he were one of them himself, observing everything but doing his best not to be observed.

He didn't move like any of them though. It was… lethargic. Kind of calming. Really, it was more of a feeling or an idea than a descriptor…

Xenophilius Lovegood moved like memory. A peaceful memory of good times that brought back sad feelings, like remembering how a deceased relative used to make you laugh.

Just seeing him walk made Serena think of her long-lost aunt who used to make cookies with her, but it had always ended with them covered in flower and eating the dough rather than baking it. A happy memory, tinged with sadness since she knew it would never happen again. That's what he walked like.

He stopped in a clearing, speaking softly to what seemed to be the air, too quietly for Serena to properly hear.

But she did hear the _other_ voices.

" _Welcome back Xeno_ ," something unseen said from the open area before her. Nothing could have been hiding, and Xenophilius seemed to be petting the air like he had done that day on the carriages. Could there be some invisible animal there?

" _There's another human here,_ " a different voice said from much closer to her; the things sounded smart and perfectly congenial, but that didn't stop her from jumping away with a little shriek. The thing was invisible, and right next to her! She had no idea what it looked like or if it was nice to everyone or just Xenophilius, would it try to kill her if she didn't gain its trust?

Alright, that was unfair and rude.

" _Why does every human think we're going to kill them?_ " Another snorted from across the clearing.

" _I-I'm sorry,_ " Serena stuttered nervously, hearing the words come out as an eerie shriek as she looked where she thought the one near her had been. That's what they sounded like to others, apparently.

There was silence in the clearing for a few moments.

" _You speak our language_ ," a voice observed from her left. She glanced in the general direction it had come from.

" _Yet you can't see us_ ," another said from her right. There seemed to be three of them; or at least three distinct ones had spoken. Since they were apparently invisible, the whole place could be filled with them and she wouldn't even know.

" _There's a way to see you? What do you look like?_ " Serena asked, forgetting all misgivings and the presence of the resident Ravenclaw wacko (very _nice_ Ravenclaw wacko) in the face of curiosity. Perhaps if she got a can of spray paint, or the magical equivalent, she could spray one and see for herself.

" _Bats_ ," came the first voice immediately.

" _Large, winged horses_ ," cut in the second, sounding put-upon. Probably by the first's likely faulty description.

" _Very large bats_ ," the first amended.

"You're an autofaunalinguist," Xenophilius' mellow voice interrupted the budding argument, giving Serena quite the start when she remembered he was there.

"You- you've heard of people like me?" Serena asked, a bit let down by the name (automatic-animal-linguist, how uncreative could people get) but hopeful nonetheless. Maybe if there were more people like her in the wizarding world she could stop being so afraid of what people would think if they found out…

"No," Xeno admitted readily, gazing somewhere past her left ear with his slightly cross-eyed stare, "I just made that up. But it's a good name, isn't it?"

Serena heard several snorts from the invisible beings and one enthusiastic yes. There were apparently more than three.

"Did you come to see the thestrals too?" The other blond asked before Serena had to respond. The invisible creatures must be thestrals. She would have to look them up later.

"I can't actually see them," Serena admitted, glancing around again as if that could have changed in the last few seconds. It hadn't. "I can hear them though. They're very smart."

Several of the animals made pleased sounds and thanked her for the compliment, one particular one replying that of course they were smart, silly little human. Which, really, made them even more intelligent because they apparently understood human speech, which most animals, even the extremely smart ones she had met before, couldn't; most only recognized tones of voice.

The monkey could, though. It had somehow learned entirely through Star Trek. Irrelevant.

"That's probably a good thing," Xeno replied loftily, running his hand through the air in a way that suggested petting. Probably because he was petting a thestral, but for all Serena knew he could have just been moving his hand through the air for no reason.

Why would not being able to see the Thestrals be a good thing? Or, on the other hand, why would being able to see them be a bad thing?

One of the creatures remarked that every human thought the thestrals would kill them. Perhaps they looked terrifying or disgusting. Xeno didn't seem to mind looking at them though, or touching them for that matter, and he didn't seem the type to judge on appearances anyway, so that was an unlikely reason for him to think her lucky not to see them. Further back, at the beginning of the year (assuming thestrals pulled the carriages which seemed like a fair guess), one of the animals had insinuated that Xenophilius had accepted something and could see them because of that. And one of them, just now, had said there was a way to see them.

Perhaps the process was painful.

She'd look it up later.

"So… how did you find the Thestrals anyway?" Serena asked, slowly inching toward the sixth year. She wasn't sure where any of the thestrals were and wanted to avoid running into them. Some of them chuckled, at her expense she was sure.

"I was searching the woods for Crumple-horned Snorkacks," Xenophilius admitted, glancing around for the elusive animals, "generally they live in Sweden, but the forest around hogwarts is known to have many animals from around the world including acromantulas and thestrals. I haven't seen one yet though."

Crumple-Horned Snorkack. Another animal she'd never heard of.

Talking to Xenophilius Lovegood, the person nearly everyone shunned for his spacy attitude and insane theories, was shaping up to be a worthwhile experience.

She left half an hour later with more questions than answers and a minor suspicion that several of his animals didn't exist.

But, still, it had definitely been fun to talk with him.

Perhaps she'd speak to him again sometime.

* * *

AN: A note about Janie! He is actually not originally my character; he's my sister's original character, and at first he was going to just make a cameo appearance and then never be mentioned again but then we got talking and he was... kinda pulled into the story. He was adapted from an avengers-type fanfiction universe into this one, with a majorly different backstory from necessity, but just FYI he is lurking around this website in another fanfiction and I _do_ have permission to use him. Also he will not be a super major character (not that I'm planning anyway) but he will also appear in the story and affect it, and I might have a few chapters dedicated to his crazy exploits. If you want more of Janie feel free to ask and I will tell you the name of the work he's in (my sister doesn't think anyone will want to know, but I thought I'd ask).


	13. Chapter 13

"Sev!" Lily called excitedly, waving the second-year Slytherin over to the Gryffindor table.

He paused a moment, glancing towards the Slytherin table but, as always, turned his back and went to Lily instead. He cast his eyes around the table for the four Gryffindor boys who had been making his life much harder than it needed to be since first year, but didn't see them. That didn't make him feel better. They usually didn't show up for breakfast only if they had some sort of "prank" (read: torture) to set up. He'd be on edge all day now.

"Hello Lily," Severus greeted his friend, glancing suspiciously around at the other girls surrounding _his_ friend. They were whispering to each other and giggling behind their hands. No doubt finding joy in mocking his ratty too-big robes, or his hair, or his nose as all Gryffindors did. All Gryffindors except Lily, of course. Lily wouldn't hurt a spider's feelings, much less a person's.

"You wanna hang out after potions today?" She asked with a bright smile.

The smile Severus gave back was sincere, but a mite bitter.

Before last year she never asked if he wanted to hang out. He always did. She knew that. But _now,_ with all these other people stealing her away, they didn't as much, and she seemed to think he needed at least a day's notice before they could even have a conversation.

He was still her favorite though. He _knew_ it. They talked every day, and he wasn't even the one initiating the conversation most of the time, and she sat next to him in all of the classes they had together.

Those other Gryffindors hadn't turned her against him yet.

And they wouldn't. Lily, unlike her bratty sister, was _way_ too nice to ever turn her back on someone she cared about no matter what other people said. He just had to make sure she not only didn't start _hating_ him but continued _caring_ about him.

"Of course," he answered finally, ignoring how the giggles from the other girls increased and focusing instead on how Lily smiled even brighter.

"See you then, Sev!"

And just like that, he was dismissed. She turned away without a second thought. He hovered awkwardly for a moment, wishing she would just _talk_ to him more, but just then he heard the raucous laughter of James Potter and Sirius Black approaching the great hall. Immediately, Severus turned and made his way back to the Slytherin table, blessedly making it far enough away from the Gryffindors before the duo entered that they didn't see fit to harass him quite yet.

As he crossed through the hall he passed the Ravenclaw table, where a small blond in too-large robes had taken one bite of her breakfast and had spit it out again. The boy next to her seemed to be asking what was wrong (someone had transformed her food into wax, probably the sixth year down the table who was laughing), and Severus paused for half a second before moving on without doing anything. That was Serena Wendal, the werewolf girl, and most of her tormentors were his friends. She should have known this would happen, the fool. She had probably made such a scene just to get some recognition- even most of the people in her year hadn't been able to name her before.

It really wasn't his problem, and it wasn't like they had actually harmed her at all. She didn't need the help.

So he continued on his way, and spent the rest of breakfast and Charms, his first class of the day, sitting sulkily beside some other Slytherin he never bothered to learn the name of. Jason, perhaps.

But once that torture was over, he hurried towards Potions with nearly a skip in his step. He hadn't originally thought much of potions- it had been easy first year, even boring, but that was before he had it with the Gryffindors.

He had heard Lily say she loved potions last year, or course, but he hadn't quite seen the charm then. Not until they were in class together, and he saw Lily work.

Before it was just throwing things in a pot. But Lily, she made it an art. No, a _science_. There was none of that random wand-waving or superfluous repetition of words in potions; if even _one_ extra lacefly wing fell into the potion, or half a stir too much in the wrong direction, the whole thing would be ruined. Potions was, now, on top of a place to spend time with Lily, his favorite class.

So it was understandable that the usually sullen tween would be more cheerful than usual as he headed towards his favorite class and his best friend.

Unfortunately, James Potter didn't seem to think so.

"What's got you so happy, Snape?" He asked, bumping shoulders with the smaller boy in a way could have been misconstrued as friendly had his face not carried such a malignant sneer.

"Finally get some shampoo?" Sirius Black offered with a barking laugh, giving Snape a slightly-too-hard-to-be-friendly smack on the back. The Slytherin felt any joy he'd had previously drain out of him, hunching his shoulders against the ringleader's words and Peter's high-pitched laughter.

He was also keenly aware that Remus was standing silently a few feet away, looking uncomfortable but doing _absolutely nothing_.

Talking back did nothing but warrant more abuse, he had learned from last year, so he simply walked a bit faster.

"Aww, don't you want to play with us?" James simpered, the grin splitting his face betraying the tone as the group sped up with him.

"I don't think he does, James!" Sirius replied, sounding genuinely surprised. But the tone dropped to the Patented Black Amused Voice when he continued, "The sniveling little Slytherin's running off to his little girl bodyguard."

"Hee hee, Snivellus Snape," Peter chimed in as well, earning a wince from Remus when the other two perked up at the words.

"Snivellus! That's a good one Pete," James said, giving the smallest of their group a proud grin as Sirius fell into mocking laughter. The boy practically glowed at the praise.

"Snivellus Snape!" Sirius howled like a broken record, Severus hunching further with each repetition of the mean-spirited nickname, wishing he could just disappear into the ground, or at least get to potions already. They wouldn't do this in front of Slughorn, and if they did dare then Lily would stop them.

" _What_ did you just call him?" Like an avenging angel, Lily Evans' voice rang from the end of the hall. Peter went silent immediately and Remus looked at the ground in shame (Lily, even at twelve, was a force to be reckoned with), but James and Sirius, the two she was actually glaring at, simply smirked.

"You like it, Evans? Pete just came up with it all by himself," Sirius replied, giving said friend a proud slap on the back even as the small boy cringed because Lily's heart-stopping glare had swung to him.

"Leave Sev alone, or I _swear_ I will bat-bogey you all so hard that your _grandchildren's_ snot will attack you!" She snapped, stomping threateningly forward with her wand raised. Severus took the distraction as opportunity to scamper away from his tormentors and unashamedly duck behind Lily.

"I'd like to see you try, Evans," James smirked, beginning to raise his wand as well. Peter ducked back, content to watch the sparks fly, Sirius and Severus pulled out their own wands to back up their respective friends, and Remus looked to be seriously considering jumping between the two.

"What's this, now?" Slughorn's jovial voice cut through the thick atmosphere like it was wet tissue paper, and all of the boys whipped their wands out of sight. Lily lowered hers more slowly, giving the bullies a warning glare even as James and Sirius gave Slughorn their most cheerful and innocent looks.

"Just a friendly duel," James offered, despite the disgusted look Lily gave him for the blatant lie.

Slughorn, on the other hand, chuckled.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, James," he said in a jesting manner, "Lily is a _very_ talented witch."

Lily blushed and smiled shyly, though a bit proudly, at the potions' master. James gave the girl a calculating once over which ended in a spectacular eyeroll. Sirius scoffed and muttered something under his breath, which earned him glares from both Lily and Severus.

"Come on now, class is about to start," Slughorn ushered them, expertly ignoring all malevolent feelings between four of his favorite students (and Remus and Peter too, of course).

* * *

AN: So... Snape is Super Extra about friendship... and the boys are totally bullies... and James has not yet decided he's in love with Lily so right now they just don't like each other at all. This dynamic will change... eventually. All of them have much character development before that happens though.


	14. Chapter 14

Screams echoed through the hall.

All of them came from the Ravenclaw table, a specific section centered around a small blond girl in too-large robes, who had received an unmarked envelope from one of the schools' owls only moments before.

She had, after a moment to turn the envelope over in search of any identifying marks, opened it. A fine yellow powder had puffed into the air, coating the girl and touching several other students as well. Almost immediately, everywhere the powder touched human skin, nasty boils rose up.

The students affected and those around screamed, scrambling away from the noxious cloud, several with arms and faces covered with the painful but harmless infections.

Shouts and screams spread through the hall, McGonagall leaping to her feet and practically apparating to the knot of students, when one, the girl to originally open the envelope, fell to the ground.

She, unlike the others who had simply been touched by the powder, had inhaled some.

Some students screamed, some sneered in disdain, others ran out of the hall in a panic as the girl (Serena, most of them didn't recognize) was speedily taken to the hospital wing by Professors McGonagall and Flitwick.

But one student simply watched.

He watched, as he had been doing since the very first "harmless" prank had been pulled on Serena Wendal. He watched and took note of everyone, every single person, who looked pleased or flashed a smirk, and observed those who went out of their way to help her.

Yes, Janus Agmundr watched, because that was what he always did.

But _this_ … This was _too far_.

Janie didn't have friends; he openly admitted he was too neurotic and perhaps a teeny bit too sociopathic for that. But Serena was definitely one of the few people he counted as slightly more than an acquaintance, whether she knew it or not.

He couldn't very well have her be _dying._

Not when he had an unwritten two-foot essay due in the next two days. Letting his smartest acquaintance languish away in the hospital wing or cowering in constant fear would _not_ be conducive to getting his homework done with minimal effort, and he couldn't have that.

It was high time someone put a stop to it.

* * *

"This has gone too far, Albus," McGonagall said, hushed but earnest as she glanced at the small girl in the hospital bed across the room. Madam Pomfrey hurried busily around the unconscious student, muttering words that were less than appropriate for the bedside of a twelve year old.

"I know, Minerva," Dumbledore replied in kind.

However the answer wasn't so easy as simply saying they needed to do something. The girl's harassers had done a remarkably good job covering up who had orchestrated the more malicious pranks, such as the one that had currently landed her and several others in the hospital wing, and although they had a comprehensive list of those who had simply hexed her (which resulted in detention but not much else) they couldn't seriously act without some kind of proof.

Proof that seemed increasingly unlikely to surface before something irreversible occurred.

* * *

 _Honeywater_

 _Mint Sprigs_

 _Stewed Mandrake_

 _Syrup of Hellebore_

Janie glanced over the last four ingredients he needed for the potion he was planning to brew, something he had read theoretically about a few weeks ago, and tucked it into his cabinet of things that could be useful if the future.

Not a literal cabinet, of course. He didn't even own a cabinet. It was really his trunk, but cabinet sounded more secret-agent.

Either way, it had _totally_ come in handy, so his squirreling tendencies were _justified._

Now he just needed to sweet talk his way into the last ingredients.

Easy peasy.

* * *

Serena awoke at around dinner time, feeling surprisingly well for having been covered with boils and suffocating a few hours earlier. She still did have a general soreness pretty much everywhere, but it seemed Pomfrey had been able to magic away the boils well enough that only her throat really actively hurt anymore.

Taking a glance around, she realized she was in the hospital wing- she'd deduced this before, it wasn't really that hard to figure out given the circumstances.

There were a few more people in here with her, she noted. None of the other boil victims though; they must have been released a while ago, since their cases were much less severe. The other inhabitants of the white room didn't look up to talking much (some were sleeping, one was reading, a sixth year Gryffindor was waxing poetic to herself about how she really didn't even need to go to the hospital wing in the first place so why was she still here as everyone else ignored her), and Serena felt that trying to speak while her throat hurt so much was probably a bad idea anyway, so she focused on the area around her instead.

There wasn't much to look at. Just a small glass of water and some type of potion in a vial- Serena thought it could perhaps be the dreamless sleep drought or maybe a cure for boils, but didn't really know what either one of those looked like (having only come to the hospital wing perhaps twice before and leaving within an hour). Underneath those, which Serena had almost missed, was a simple piece of parchment.

"Ah, Miss Wendal, you're awake," Madam Pomfrey declared as she hustled towards the girl's bed (Serena had noticed the nurse seemed to move everywhere very quickly, but perhaps that was only when she had patients). Before giving Serena a thorough once-over, she placed a quill and an inkwell down on the table. "How are you feeling?"

Serena opened her mouth to respond, but before she could Pomfrey was already shushing her and handing her the quill.

"Don't talk, you'll only make it worse! I brought the parchment for a reason," she tutted. After a moment, Serena wrote _I'm okay. My throat hurts though._ Pomfrey nodded as if that was exactly what she expected which, Serena supposed, was probably true since she had preemptively brought the writing equipment. "...on top of everything everything else…" Serena heard her mutter to herself as she poured some of the potion into the water.

Was Madam Pomfrey exasperated at having so many patients? Was she struggling with something personal and now having yet another stupid little kid who got herself in trouble to take care of was just icing on the cake?

 _Sorry to bother you,_ she wrote under her previous words, holding it up when Pomfrey turned to give her the glass. The woman looked surprised at first, before her expression melted into a slight smile.

"Dear, if no one ever bothered me I would be out of the job," she replied plainly, handing the glass over, "drink that all up, it'll help your throat."

* * *

Slughorn looked down at the innocently-smiling student before him. He vaguely recognized the kid; Janus was his name (Slughorn remembered that simply because it had _sounded_ interesting enough to belong to an extraordinary student), but since the boy seemed completely average in all but height (in which he was severely lacking) Slughorn hadn't paid much attention to him.

"Of course I have the ingredients, my boy," Slughorn admitted, not noticing the small twitch at the name, "but what do you need them for?"

The professor was already leading him to the ingredient closet, Janie noticed, but decided to answer anyway.

"Scientific inquiry."

Well that was a lie. Whatever.

"Hmm," Slughorn nodded like that made sense, "I used to be quite the scientist myself, when I was young."

Oh, yeah, this was shaping up to be _just_ the type of thing Janie didn't care about at all. However, in the interest of getting what he wanted, he kept the smile (which was looking more and more like a pained grimace as time passed) and tried to look as interested as possible.

"And that is why, Janus," Slughorn pontificated as he pulled the stewed mandrake from a high shelf. Janie must have zoned out or something; he had been eying the innocuous unmarked jar in the very back of the top shelf, wondering if there was a way he could figure out what was in it and apparently he'd missed the whole story as well as Slughorn handing him the first three ingredients.

"Janie," he corrected almost automatically, cutting the professor off mid sentence.

"Hm?" The large man asked, turning with the last ingredient in hand.

"My name's Janie. I don't like Janus, so it's not my name," Janie stated plainly, eying the mandrake that was just out of his reach.

"A man of decisions," Slughorn laughed after a moment of inquisitive staring, handing the second year the final ingredient.

"Yeah, sure," Janie agreed, leaving as soon as he had a grasp on everything he needed, giving the potions' master a strange look before he slipped out of the room.

"Strange child," Slughorn mused. Perhaps he should pay more attention to that one…

* * *

"Why are you still in here? Are you dying or something?"

Serena looked up from the book she was reading in surprise as Regulus' unexpected voice rather rudely interrupted her. He was standing ten feet away from the bed, as if afraid he might catch whatever she had (or maybe afraid someone would see him speaking to her), arms crossed and scowl set firmly in place. His brow was furrowed a bit, though, which Serena thought made him look more concerned than anything.

"I'm fine, actually. Madam Pomfrey just wanted me to stay for another day or two to make sure, because she's never had anyone inhale bulbadox powder before."

It was nearly lunchtime the day _after_ she had been sent to the hospital wing; she had been confined for over twenty four hours for an ailment even the worst of the others had been released within hours of contracting. Her dorm mates and Narcissa had already come to check on her, the latter leaving a few chocolate frogs "for morale" she'd said. Janie, too, had popped in. He stayed long enough to ask how long she would be kept in the hospital wing and left immediately after she told him, muttering to himself and snagging one of the chocolate frogs as he walked out.

He was a strange fellow, and Serena liked to think that was his way of expressing concern.

Regulus had been able to convince himself not to check up on her in the interest of his image all of yesterday and most of the morning (it wasn't all that uncommon for Serena to miss meals after all), but he had casually asked one of her Ravenclaw friends whom he didn't know the name of and she told him Serena hadn't come to class.

Well, to not go to class, Serena must have been _dying_.

Except she wasn't. She was totally fine. And Regulus tried to scowl because darnit he had been _worried_ and it was for _nothing_ because she was _fine_ , but the best he could manage was keeping his smile down to a mere quirk of the lips; he had been worried for nothing. She was _fine_.

"Well you better get out of here soon," he lectured abruptly, turning away and marching out without another word. Serena smiled after him, glad that he cared enough to drop by.

"Ooh, he _totally_ likes you," the Gryffindor girl (who had admitted, grudgingly, that perhaps a broken leg and a strangely long-lasting locomotor charm was a reason to go to the hospital wing, but only after her escape attempt) sang from across the room.

Serena shook her head in exasperation and went back to reading, ignoring the girl's overdramatic moaning about being forever ignored.

* * *

Janie had not shown up to classes today.

This was not unusual.

At this point, his teachers merely made a mental note to give him, yet another, day of detention.

What was strange was that he was skipping out for a productive purpose. Usually when asked _why_ he would answer something along the lines of "I couldn't go to transfiguration; I forgot I wanted to sit by the lake" or "had to waylay potions today, got some very important food business to discuss with the house elves" or even "I didn't want to get out of bed. So I didn't."

But this time, Janie was holed up in his room in the dungeons, having completed his potion, feverishly writing and casting spells, glancing every now and then at an unmarked notebook filled with scribbled writing that had been mailed to him just that morning.

This was going to be _glorious._

* * *

AN: I live! And since school has started and all I don't think I'll be updating all that much, but hopefully I'll be able to get out something every month or two... writing is hard, guys. But it's fun, and totally worth it, so I'm not gonna let this story die!


	15. Chapter 15

The day started quietly and completely commonplace.

The students all sat down for breakfast, teachers as well, and the usual food appeared completely normally.

At the Gryffindor table Lily Evans laughed with her dorm mates, purposely ignoring the group of boys making a spectacle of themselves further down the table. Alice and Abigail were more willing to give the four some attention in the form of amusement and glaring respectively. The group of boys consisted of none other than James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Though, as usual, the latter two weren't so involved in grabbing attention as the former, and Remus was in fact almost under the table in embarrassment.

At the Hufflepuff table the Talley girls were good-naturedly poking fun at Adrian Kappa, who was red from the tips of his toes to the top of his head and clutching his camera like a lifeline, and yet still sound enough of mind to think of a surprisingly good comeback. Grace, meanwhile, was engaged in conversation with some of the older students; she had come slightly out of her shell since last year.

At the Ravenclaw table business went as usual. Most people eating and having light conversation, a few of the more adventurous or attention-grubbing attempting complex spells on their food before eating it (or tricking someone else into eating it). Matt, Sydney, Liz, and Rachel briefly conversed about how they hoped Serena would be allowed to leave the hospital wing soon (although Liz was of the opinion that sitting in a bed reading all day would be much preferable to going to class and so them wishing her well was, in fact, cruel) before moving on to other topics.

At the Slytherin table Severus Snape sat sullenly beside Regulus Black, focused on staring across the room at the Gryffindor table (specifically at a certain redhead sitting there) rather than participating in conversation. Narcissa was seated next to her betrothed, quietly nodding along with what he and their other friends were talking about, despite not agreeing with the flippant use of the term "mudblood". Rufus, Ramsus, and Rachel sat near the end of the table, cheerfully discussing whether or not muggle studies would be worth taking (Ramsus said no; as a muggleborn, he could tell the other two anything they wanted) before moving on to the other electives they could take despite it being rather early in the year.

Near the center of the Slytherin table sat Janie, silent and solitary despite being in the midst of many chattering housemates. He was waiting. The mail would arrive any minute, and _then_ the fun could begin.

As if on cue, owls began swooping in and dropping off packages. People tore into the packages from home and rolled their eyes or grinned, others paid for their daily prophet and began to read, some drooped down when they saw no packages coming for them.

Then the wave of owls had passed, and nothing had happened. Janie sat, pointedly eating, he knew nothing would be coming for him, and continued to wait.

The conversation in the hall, having lulled while the owls delivered their loads, began to pick up again.

Before it could return to the normal morning ruckus, another group of owls swooped in.

This was not, in itself, strange. Sometimes a group of owls was behind others. That was no cause for alarm.

Although, the fact that every single one of the nearly thirty owls was carrying a bright red envelope did not go unnoticed. The hall went silent in anticipation. The owls circled the hall once, everyone watching, fearing they were one of the recipients or waiting for the show to start; people turned spectacular colors when yelled at in front of a crowd.

Suddenly, five of the owls dove down. One at the Slytherin table in front of Narcissa, one at the Ravenclaw in front of a seventh year boy named Harlan, one on the Gryffindor table in front of Frank Longbottom, and two at the Hufflepuff table in front of a fourth year named Laura and a sixth year named Richard.

Essentially, five of the nicest people in any of their houses, most of the students would agree.

As soon as the owls landed and the howlers were off their legs they flew away. Right before all five of the landed ones (the other about-twenty-five still in the air) burst open.

" _CONGRATULATIONS!"_ Five different voices screeched out into the silent room, " _YOU ARE NOT TERRIBLE PEOPLE!_ "

And then they shredded themselves.

Silence reigned.

Any reaction that would have been extracted through that strange howler happening was postponed- the remaining owls were now diving.

Only two landed on the Hufflepuff table, almost ten on the Slytherin table, and five or six on the other two.

They landed in front of Lucius Malfoy, and Brandon Raltz, and Connor Dergan; them and everyone else who had dared to hex or harass Serena in the last two months.

One, singular owl landed on the teacher's table directly in front of Mr. Blahrty.

The howlers were taken from the owls and hurriedly dropped on the tables. They didn't go off like the others. Even the teachers waited in silent anticipation.

There was silence for nearly a minute.

"Are they gonna-" as soon as the unsuspecting Hufflepuff had whispered, the howlers tore themselves open with an impressive shriek.

" _YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, ARE,_ " around fifteen different voices bellowed in tandem out into the silence of the hall.

Then, chaos descended as every single howler began yelling different words at their recipients and, it seemed, all of the recipient's friends.

The Gryffindor table rung with high pitched laughter, howlers taking turns yelling out things like " _YOU ATTACKED A LITTLE GIRL"_ and " _ATTACKING A TWELVE YEAR OLD; HOW BRAVE OF YOU"_. The one in front of Brandon Raltz turned to his friends and yelled in a would-be-whisper voice: " _DID YOU KNOW HE WORE DIAPERS UNTIL HIS THIRD YEAR HERE?"_

" _MOB MENTALITY: HAVING OR SHOWING RIGID OPINIONS OR A NARROW OUTLOOK; PETTY._ " One of the Hufflepuff howlers recited in an impossibly low vibrato.

" _UNJUST,"_ the other Hufflepuff howler defined in a smooth female voice, " _NOT BASED ON OR_ _ **BEHAVING ACCORDING TO**_ _WHAT IS MORALLY RIGHT AND FAIR."_

Laughter started ringing through the hall, some of it truly amused while some was horrified; laughter for lack of anything better to do. Especially because the boys and girls being screamed at from the envelopes were largely people who not many others liked.

" _SARA GOT A T IN POTIONS LAST YEAR_ ," one of the Ravenclaw howlers positively giggled in the voice of a small girl.

" _EXCERPT FROM CONNOR DERGAN'S DIARY: JANUARY 4TH_ " a voice that sounded remarkably like Morgan Freeman declared, " _I ACED THE WRITTEN CHARMS EXAM TODAY; THOSE IDIOTS DON'T EVEN KNOW THAT I CHEATED,_ " another Ravenclaw howler recited.

" _DID YOU EVER WONDER JUST WHO IT WAS THAT HEXED MCGONAGALL?_ " A Slytherin howler whispered conspiratorially, though loud enough for several students around the intended target heard. If it weren't for the ruckus kicked up by all the other howlers, it could have been heard by the whole hall.

But that destroys the concept of _blackmail,_ doesn't it.

" _WE KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO MONICA LYNCH'S CAT. WE ALSO KNOW WHERE YOU HID IT_ ," another Slytherin howler hissed.

" _DOES SLUGHORN KNOW YOUR FATHER NEVER REALLY DID WHAT HE'S FAMOUS FOR?"_ Yet another Slytherin howler innocently asked in the voice of a little girl.

" _PROFESSOR, PROFESSOR, PROFESSOR. YOU HAVE QUITE THE BEEF WITH WEREWOLVES, DON'T YOU? ENOUGH TO TRY TO GET CERTAIN STUDENTS EXPELLED, WE HEAR. ENOUGH TO MAKE THE LIVES OF CERTAIN SECOND YEARS,_ _ **WHO ARE 12 FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN**_ _, MUCH HARDER THAN THEY NEED TO BE. MAYBE WE SHOULD TELL DUMBLEDORE ABOUT THAT "JOB" YOU HAD BEFORE THIS ONE. MAYBE HE'LL RECONSIDER YOUR TEACHER STATUS."_ The howler at the head table suggested in the voice of a man with some strange accent, loud enough for McGonagall, who was sitting a few seats down, to hear. She hadn't been pleased with the situation before, but now she was both displeased and even more suspicious of the new DADA teacher. She would have to look into his past a bit more carefully.

For a solid five minutes the hall was filled to the brim with the wailing of the howlers, words overlapping each other and blending together until it was all just one roaring mess of laughter, shaming, and dirty secrets, only snippets understandable to anyone not near each specific howler.

" _ON THE 15TH OF NOVEMBER 1968-"_

" _COURAGE: THE ABILITY TO-"_

" _IT'S UNDER THE SINK-"_

" _~OH DEAR~"_

" _BETROTHED-"_

" _SINGING IN THE SHOWER!'_

" _LET'S PLAY A GAME-"_

And then suddenly, abruptly, all at once, every single howler stopped. They didn't explode or rip themselves to shreds as they should have if they were done, just stopped howling, floating silently before their victims. Slowly, the laughter and yelling died down once more, and soon the only noise of Sara Pinns' sobbing echoed through the hall.

As soon as most of the noise had halted, the howlers leapt into action once more, rushing directly up to the faces of the intended recipients and snapping, " _don't do it again_ ," the fifteen voices seeming almost to meld into one, before finally, in tandem, all burst into vicious flames.

The ash that was all that remained of the howlers spread itself almost deliberately upon the food of their recipients.

Silence for a few more moments, and then-

Chaos.

Several people had been reduced to tears, many who had been victims of the recipients of the howlers were laughing, people were shouting in anger and glee, and an uproar had claimed even the teachers who were demanding who had been involved in this massive "prank". James Potter and Sirius Black in particular were demanding of everyone within sight who had been the obvious genius who set this up- it was someone they wanted to meet; this was the type of thing they _aspired_ to be able to do. Janie was grinning like a maniac, observing the chaos he had caused with pride.

Ah, chaos. His main motive.

With the fortunate perk of getting Serena's tormentors to back off of course.

Meanwhile, Serena lay sleeping in the hospital wing, completely unaware of anything that had happened in the great hall.

* * *

AN: Janie is only a second year. He did _not_ manage this all by himself, but who else was involved will be revealed later.


	16. Chapter 16

AN: Okay, so it's been a long time. I have excuses, but I'm not gonna waste your time with them. Enjoy the chapter (sorry, it's more marauder drama I swear they have happy shenanigans) and hopefully I will be able to update better than I have been...

* * *

 _Ramilda Hosten- 5' 6, blond, great at charms. Hufflepuff first year._

 _Holly Sham- 5' 3, blond, terrified of animals. Gryffindor first year._

"Ugh, _none_ of them make sense!" Sirius groaned, flopping back onto his bed dramatically as James continued to scrutinize the list.

It was a list of all the first year blond girls in the school; there were a surprising amount, but none that fit what they were looking for.

They had been compiling the list since that night they had found out Remus was a werewolf. Yes, despite everything they hadn't forgotten about the girl.

She had been blonde, they saw that clearly in the light of the full moon, and she had been so small that she _must_ be a first year. Other that that, they didn't have much to work off of.

Sirius had ruled them all out already; "she's Slytherin, a hunt would've been organized already" "she's Hufflepuff, she'd have run away scared." "She's Ravenclaw, they don't break rules." and all of the Gryffindors were too tall or deathly afraid of animals.

James pretty much agreed with his estimates.

They hadn't yet gotten around to telling Remus about the girl. He'd been on edge since they found out about his wolfiness (lycanthropy, he insists it's called), and he had only started to wind down a few days ago. They hadn't wanted to freak him out even more, not until they'd found the girl and discovered what she knew, if she was planning on telling anyone, and _how_ she had managed to get a werewolf to stop attacking.

But they were having no luck. Perhaps it was time to throw in the towel and ask the smartest in their group for assistance.

"It's been _months_ ," James complained, flopping back next to Sirius with a scowl. It had been about two months since the incident. "We should just tell him about it."

"It'll just freak him out again," Sirius denied weakly, not really feeling the words. He didn't doubt them at all; knowing that he had almost hurt another student would drive Remus to despair, and knowing that he had somehow retained a semblance of humanity that the girl had brought out but he had no way of finding again may hurt him even more.

In the past few months, it had become clear that Remus was having a hard time with his condition.

An observation that one would think would be obvious to any who knew even the slightest bit about werewolves, but it honestly hadn't sunk in for the three uneffected boys. They realized that it had to be physically painful and generally unpleasant, of course, but they had figured that it was just one night a month and after that all was well and Remus was simply another kid like them.

That delusion hadn't lasted long.

It had been James who first noticed Remus' constant state of sleep deprivation; he'd known about it since the beginning of first year. It was rather hard to miss when their bookwormish friend had the unfortunate habit of dozing off while doing homework or reading or even watching a quidditch match. He had assumed it had to do with Remus working himself too hard. It had been Peter that first connected the tiredness to his lycanthropy. Peter was a light sleeper, unlike James and Sirius who both slept like the dead, so only he was aware that Remus had been plagued by nightmares since first year and probably before.

After the first few times of being woken up by Remus' labored breathing and silently watching the other boy sneak down to the common room to read in order to avoid sleeping more, little eleven year old Pete had decided to try to help.

* * *

 **First Year**

 _Peter's eyes slid open, still foggy with sleep but undeniably awake. It was still dark outside and the moon was high in the sky, and usually Peter would sleep until dawn without interruption so something must have woken him up. That something wasn't a mystery to him, though, as it had been happening off and on for the past few weeks._

 _He looked over to the bed to his left and, sure enough, Remus was stumbling to a standing position, wiping his arm over his eyes. Peter figured that could be the other boy trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes, but given the heavy breathing and shaky hands… Remus seemed to be crying._

 _Before that night, Peter had shrugged Remus' strange sleep schedule off as just what Remus did; perhaps he was such a light sleeper he would just wake up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to bed. Or maybe the boy just had nightmares every now and then. But actually crying? And looking around the room like that, intently eyeing each and every occupant as if to make sure they were still safe in the room? Those couldn't possibly be just any regular old nightmares of going to class in your underwear or failing your final exams._

 _He watched Remus stumble from the room, grabbing his latest book off of the night stand as he went, and pondered the possibility of going back to sleep. That was what he had been doing thus far, just ignoring the strange occurrence and sleeping instead, but that was before he had been accepted as part of the group. He was Remus' friend now, right?_

 _Yes, and friends don't just sleep while they know their friend is scared._

 _Peter slowly extracted himself from the blanket, squeaking at the cold night air that enveloped him instead, but determined to go talk to Remus. He finally untangled himself, rolling to the edge of his bed and standing. He took a moment to wrap the blanket around himself before beginning the long and arduous trek down the stairs._

 _Remus was seated on one of the couches in the common room directly in front of the fire, staring intently at his book but not reading or really even seeing the text. The scenes of his nightmare played through his head over and over again, strange and vivid in the flickering light of the fire. Never before had Remus so missed electric lights._

" _Are you okay?" Peter's voice cut through the silence of the night, seeming almost to be a shout to Remus who had been expecting nothing but the crackling of the fire for at least a few more hours, despite Peter having whispered the words in an attempt to not disturb the others sleeping nearby. Remus gasped, spinning away to hide his obviously splotchy face, arms flailing in surprise such that the book Remus was reading was almost flung directly into the fire._

" _Yeah-" Remus' voice cracked halfway through the word, and the kid ducked down further in the chair as if to hide, "I'm f-fine."_

 _Peter was not stupid. That was obviously a lie, and a terrible one at that. Irregardless, he was unsure how to proceed. Should he respect Remus' decision to stay isolated, or push forward and try to figure out what's wrong? Hovering indecisively at the bottom of the stairs, intermittently glancing between Remus hyperventilating on the couch and the inviting darkness of the stairwell that led to his cosy bed and out of this situation, Peter heaved a silent sigh and hoped he knew what he was doing as he took the first step towards his crying peer._

 _Remus nearly jumped out of his skin when Peter plopped himself down on the other side of the couch, this time actually dropping his book on the floor when he jerked. For the next few minutes they sat in silence, Remus staring incredulously and unabashedly at his smaller friend as Peter twitched unendingly in his seat and looked everywhere except for at his crying friend. Peter had never dealt with crying people before. He hadn't even really dealt much with people his own age before Hogwarts, so he wasn't sure what to do._

" _You have nightmares," he said suddenly, fingers tapping nervously on the arm of the couch, glancing quickly at Remus before his eyes darted back to the fire. Remus didn't respond. There was nothing to respond to; Peter had simply stated a fact. But he did finally avert his eyes from his friend's visage. Leaning down and picking up his book was more a desperate bid for something to do than real concern for the pages, but when he looked up and saw Peter's eyes had finally affixed themselves in his direction he was grateful that it gave him something else to focus on._

 _Remus stayed silent in some vague hope that Peter would leave if his unasked question went unanswered, but after another minute of silence it became clear that he was there to stay._

" _Yeah," Remus finally replied in a voice only slightly louder than a mumble, eyes flickering feverishly to the darker corners of the room as his hands wrapped the book so tightly his knuckles turned white. "Please don't tell them."_

 _Remus didn't have to specify who he meant. He was talking about James and Sirius. Peter found himself in a dilemma; lying to James and Sirius was not an option. They were his first friends. But breaking Remus' trust was also not an option; he was also one of his first friends._

 _It wouldn't be a lie if they just never asked, though._

" _Okay," Peter conceded._

 _Well. Now that he'd cleared that up… Peter didn't know what to do next. So he sat, twitching, as Remus continued to crush his book._

" _...Want to talk about it?" He finally asked, glancing at his friend. Remus stared into the fire. He did want to talk about it. He wanted, so badly, to just tell Peter and the others his secret; to just have them forsake him now so he didn't get too attached, so it would hurt less in the long run. He didn't dare hope, though maybe somewhere deep down he wished, that they would accept him. He opened his mouth to do just that, fingers tightening even more around his book, but then… Then he remembered. He remembered James and Sirius laughing at the student they had pranked for making fun of him. He remembered Sirius bringing him breakfast in the hospital wing. He remembered James teaching him how to ride a broom._

 _He remembered Peter following him downstairs at one in the morning to see if he was okay._

 _His shoulders slumped, fingers loosed, and he found himself shaking his head._

 _He expected Peter to just get up and leave after that, but he didn't. He stayed there, silently staring into the fire, for a few more minutes. Then Remus felt the couch shift and figured that Peter had finally decided to leave-_

" _Is there something you_ do _want to talk about?"_

* * *

After they learned of his lycanthropy Peter had immediately deduced what the nightmares were about. He hadn't told James and Sirius even then. Remus had done that himself; he had told them simply that he sometimes had nightmares about it. Not that it was almost every night, not that he would get up and read until the rest awoke, not that Peter would stay up with him until another Gryffindor awoke and then he would go to bed, which was why Peter always slept later than the rest of them. So Peter hadn't told them that either.

It had been Sirius who first noticed that Remus avoided social interactions. That had been the reason he and James had decided to adopt him into their little group in the first place, despite his complaints. They had assumed he was simply shy or, at the very beginning, that he was snobbish. But after his reaction to them finding out the truth, they realized the real reason.

Remus was _terrified_. He lived in a constant state of fear; fear that he was truly evil like Blahrty and so many other preached, fear that he would be hated by his friends and peers, fear that someone would find out his secret.

James, Sirius, and Peter wanted to lessen that fear in any way possible. And if finding the little blonde girl would help with that in the long run, or at least protect him by making sure she wouldn't tell anyone what she'd seen, then maybe bringing Remus in on the search was worth it.


	17. Chapter 17

Serena was sitting in the back of the library, alone at a table. Regulus, who was usually the one who sat with her, was currently serving detention for hexing a fellow Slytherin. He hadn't told her what he'd hexed them for, or even who they were, and she hadn't pressed for answers. Sure she was curious, but she was sure he would tell her if it were any of her business.

Janie, who also occasionally joined her, was also in detention. Although, unlike with Regulus, that wasn't a strange occurrence.

So Serena, who currently had an off block, had been sitting alone in the library doing her homework for about ten minutes. This was the first time since the werewolf incident with Blahrty that she had dared to sit in the library by herself; about two months ago it seemed that everyone had just spontaneously decided to forget about it, but it had taken quite a while for her to venture out with any confidence in her safety.

"Excuse me," a deep but soft voice came, and Serena looked up just in case whoever it was was talking to her.

Upon seeing the huge muscle-bound man looming over her table, Serena's shoulders slumped a little. So much for not being hexed for "liking" werewolves.

"You don't happen to hate werewolves, do you?" She sighed, just to make sure. The huge fifth year blinked a few times, looking honestly confused.

"No," he asserted earnestly, "werewolves are human beings like anyone else, and deserve the same rights." Serena relaxed a little, but now she was just confused.

"Okay, so if you aren't here to hex me, what's this about?" She asked with no ire; the guy didn't seem to mean any harm, and she didn't mean to be rude but most people in Ravenclaw in second year didn't know her, so why would a fifth year Gryffindor?

"Sorry if I scared you," he replied looking honestly repentant, "I just wanted to meet you, because you and my little brother are friends, and he doesn't get along with many people. I'm Croesus Katsar; you can call me Krow." He held out his huge hand, and Serena took it (noting that he was about 100 shades darker than she was) with only a moment's hesitation.

"Serena Wendal..." Serena stared for a moment, squinted her eyes, tilted her head, and finally just shook it altogether. "I'm sorry, but I don't think I talk to anyone who looks remotely like you."

"Ha, yeah, he doesn't look like me," Krow laughed good-naturedly. "He's about yea high," he said, holding a hand at his waist height, "well, you know, a little taller, but he sure seems that short sometimes. Anyway, he's short, he's got the crazy eyes- but he's actually really sweet."

Serena did know one person who could fit that description…

"You're… not talking about Janie are you?" She asked, hardly daring to believe it. Aside from the fact that they seemed to be complete opposite in personality, and the significant difference in their stature, there was also the fact that Krow was a bonafide South African while Janie was lily-white.

"Yes, Janus!" Krow grinned joyously, "I was surprised to find out he was willing to stand up for you, he only does that for people he _really_ likes. But he doesn't have a lot of friends, so I just wanted to know what kind of person his friend was. I have to say, I'm glad it was someone like you; if he ever gives you trouble, or you need some help, feel free to talk to me," he offered, only taking a moment to wave before he walked away.

Serena sat there a moment, a little shell-shocked by the news that Janie's brother (adoptive? Figurative?) was such a nice guy. Not that Janie wasn't nice, but that was deep, deep down; Krow seemed to be just about the most overtly helpful person she'd ever met.

But what did he mean by Janie standing up for her?

* * *

James and Sirius had resisted the urge to tell Remus about the girl.

Perhaps she _would_ be easier to find with his help, but if they _didn't_ find her then all if would do was freak him out and make him even more on edge.

So, instead of obsessing over the list the next day, which happened to be a saturday, they decided to have a little bit of fun… since none of them were in detention for once.

The question simply became, what to do?

"I say we go play with Snivillus," James smirked at breakfast, purposefully messing up his hair; he thought it made him look cool. Peter totally agreed, but Remus was neutral on the subject. Sirius, on the other hand, took hair care very seriously and thought that messing up one's hair was ridiculous. Despite that, Sirius grinned, because he found "playing" with Snape just as fun as James did.

"How about not," Remus replied only under his breath, wincing. He didn't feel that harassing another student, no matter how unsavory, was really a good thing to do… but he couldn't very well speak up against James. Not when he and Sirius had been the first people to ever accept him.

"Y'know, we do that _every day_ ," Sirius said after a moment, rolling his eyes, "but there is _someone_ we haven't bugged in a while that I know about."

"And who might that be?" James asked, smirk creeping onto his face. Sirius didn't answer verbally, instead opting to nod in the direction of the teacher's table with his widest grin.

* * *

Professor Blahrty had been less overtly horrible recently.

Oh, he made no secret in the fact that he despised any student that had sided with werewolves in that fiasco a few months ago, but after the howler incident something had changed. No one had really heard what had happened up at the table, but everyone had seen that Blahrty had received a howler; it was a common guess that whatever secrets had been shouted by that howler had gotten him a stern talking to. Because since then, Blahrty had just been extremely passive aggressive rather than just outright aggressive.

But just because he was _less_ horrible doesn't mean anyone liked him any more.

So when he showed up to class on monday with teal hair and orange skin, no one was really sympathetic.

* * *

 _Back to Saturday night_

"You know," Sirius' voice came from the darkness, "we still haven't come up with a name."

James groaned; he wanted to go to bed at a reasonable time (for just about the first time ever), probably because he had been the one bolting through the halls distracting Peeves during the plan.

"Blahrty called us rapscallions today," Remus yawned, smiling slightly, "maybe we could use that."

"Let's just go to sleep," Peter mumbled, "cleaning cauldrons makes my arms sore." There were murmurs of agreement (from all but Sirius, who groaned loudly) and before long all of the boys found themselves asleep.

Remus awoke some time later short of breath and covered in a cold sweat. Without much thought, he rolled out of his bed.

It took a moment to regain his bearings, and when he did Remus pulled himself shakily to his feet, his knees felt ready to give out, and he was struggling to keep silent with the whimpers that were tearing from his throat.

He couldn't stay in the room; he quickly stumbled out the door and down the stairs, collapsing at the couch on the bottom.

For the last two months, ever since the others had found out his… _condition_ , no matter the nightmare he had he had forced himself to stay in the room, in his own bed.

Because Peter couldn't talk to him there. If he was in the room with James and Sirius, Peter, who had undoubtedly figured out his nightmares were about his lycanthropy, wouldn't confront him about it.

But… that wasn't the real reason. He didn't want that conversation to happen, not at all, but the real fear was… this.

What was happening right now.

Remus laying, curled up on the couch, tears streaming down his face and breath coming in gasps… and completely alone.

Peter hadn't come. He didn't want to go downstairs, because he was afraid that his lycanthropy had changed everything. That his late-night talks with Peter (or, usually more accurately, them just sitting in silence keeping each other company), would end because Peter would never want to be alone with him again, or just decided that he wasn't really human enough to have such feelings as to need comfort after a nightmare.

So he sat, staring into the fire, freaking out about the nightmare still, but the truth that Peter hadn't come after him seemed more and more important as he awoke.

"Are you okay?"

At the question, Remus inhaled so violently it sent him into a coughing fit, which he ignored best he could as he simultaneously turned towards the noise and threw himself in the other direction. Then he stopped, frozen mid-breath, and stared at the person in front of him.

It was Peter, standing at the base of the stairs and fidgeting.

Peter knew it was a stupid question. His friend was obviously _not_ okay, but he couldn't think of anything else. "Hi" would have been even more idiotic; "wanna talk about it" much too sudden, and he'd never wanted to before so why would he now?

Maybe he shouldn't have gone downstairs. Peter thought maybe Remus didn't want him to follow in the middle of the night anymore, so it had taken him a while to move, deliberating. Finally he'd decided that, either way, he would check if Remus wanted anything and would leave if he was told. He really hadn't expected such a violent reaction to his signaling-I'm-here question.

"I'll leave if you want," Peter offered awkwardly, after Remus had just stared at him for nearly a minute. There was more silence. Peter began to turn back to the stairs.

"N-no!" The Remus almost yelled, then flushing bright red and resituating himself so he was sitting on the couch normally and staring resolutely into the fire. "I mean… If you don't mind being alone with a… with me."

This time it was Peter who paused so long that Remus regretted speaking. But then little Pete stepped between Remus and the fire he'd been staring intently at, a cheeky little grin on his face.

"I know what'll cheer you up. Want to see how many rounds of exploding snap we can play in the dorm before James or Sirius wake up?"

* * *

AN: So my sister was proof reading this and when Peter showed up she grinned and said "Yay! Peter showed up!" And then there was a beat of silence and she slowly went from grinning to horrified and yelled, "No! Dangit, I _hate_ Peter!" And if that doesn't mean I'm doing my job I don't know what does.


	18. Chapter 18

AN: A valentines special! Way after valentines day, but whatever.

* * *

"So you're really not doing anything for Valentine's day?"

Xenophilius blinked almost uncomprehendingly at the small second year, peering around the tree he had been examining for traces of a harrtap nest. That was one of those creatures that it seemed only he had ever heard of, she was fairly sure they didn't exist anywhere beyond his own mind, but Serena found them interesting anyway. She didn't ask to pry, but he _did_ have a girlfriend after all and most people did things with the person they were dating on Valentine's day.

It had been a bit of a shock to discover that Xenophilius not only actually had a few friends but also a girlfriend as well; Serena had been ashamed as soon as she realized she was surprised. She had assumed he was neglected by everyone, too weird for nearly anyone to really strike up a friendship with, and that was both extremely rude to Xenophilius and highly presumptuous of her. One of his friends, a sixth year Slytherin named Rodney, was less than pleased by her surprise (he found it rude and unsavory that she would assume such things about someone she called a friend and told her as much without qualms), but the others, including Xenophilius and his girlfriend, took it in stride.

It had been less of a shock, nearly expected actually, when Xenophilius had been wandering the grounds alone on a Valentine's day. Much like Serena herself had been, except that he would stop periodically and peer closely at a tree or clump of grass before muttering to himself and moving on. He'd invited her to go searching for the mysterious harrtap nest; he had felt the presence of the animal around the southern grounds. They apparently excreted a gas that induces blushing, woozyness, and forgetfulness. Serena decided to not ask if that could not have been caused by the date he was on when he felt those symptoms.

"Of course I am," he replied as if it were obvious, turning back to the tree with an even more discerning eye. Serena waited for further explanation, but none was forthcoming. Xeno _could_ have been avoiding the question, but after months of knowing him she was pretty sure he'd just forgotten she'd asked one.

"Then why are you out here with me?" Serena asked, squinting at a knot on a different tree that Xeno had been particularly interested in as it had signs of the harrtap on it, trying to discern what made it any different from the other knots on any other tree. She couldn't find anything remarkable.

"I'm going to find the harrtap nest for her. Pandora has never tasted the honey of a harrtap, and it is said to be the most fulfilling food on the planet," he nodded almost to himself, gliding off to find a more suitable tree. He paused a moment, though, turning and looking back at Serena with that slightly-crooked smile of his, "and anyway, you're my friend as well."

Serena practically glowed at the statement, as off-kilter and throwaway as it had been, even as Xeno returned to his search without a second thought. This time Serena followed with gusto, scrutinizing every tree she passed. Perhaps the harrtap and its nest didn't even exist, but Xeno was putting a lot of effort into finding it for his beloved and Serena was determined to help as well.

It was almost two hours later that Xeno finally decided to stop searching for the day; he did need to talk to Pandora eventually, after all, and they did have a date planned for just twenty minutes from then. Serena had picked some flowers and shoved them into Xeno's hands, insisting that he bring his girlfriend _something_ , and then he had gone on his way. Of course, Serena herself couldn't imagine why someone would give anyone flowers, it was probably the most useless gift ever, but dad always got them for mom on special occasions, and her mom was always happy about it, so there must be something behind it.

Serena really hoped he didn't get in trouble with Pandora for not having a present, and showing up with functionally useless flowers; he'd been searching for that harrtap nest for a week, poor guy, so it wasn't for lack of trying…

"Hey," a voice snapped from behind her, tearing Serena from her thoughts. She turned around with a smile, already knowing who it was. Only one person she knew could pull off that strange mix of nervousness and condescension.

Sure enough, Regulus stood there in his school robes (he didn't seem to own any casual clothes, at least not that Serena had seen) glaring at everything- or perhaps nothing- while he stood like a statue frozen in impeccable posture. Serena had noticed that about Regulus: unlike most people, who fidgeted more when they were nervous, Regulus got more and more still the more nervous he got. Serena suspected it had something to do with being raised as a "superior pureblood" or something; some never-show-weakness sort of bull.

"Hi Reg!" She greeted cheerfully, not phased in the slightest by his cold demeanor. He shifted uncomfortably, and she waited silently, smile not dying in the slightest. He wasn't used to people just _talking_ to him, she knew, _especially_ when they sounded actually happy about it; she knew because last year he had told her this himself. Sometimes he just needed a minute to adjust from talking-with-crazy-pureblood-fanatics to normal teenager. That he hadn't said, but Serena found it pretty obvious.

"I- Just, um… Why… Whyareyouhangingoutwiththatguysomuch?"

It took a moment for Serena to realize what Regulus had even said, and another to figure out he was probably talking about Xeno. She cocked her head in confusion, smile falling into a slight frown.

"Well, because he's my friend," Serena answered factually. "And from what I've been able to gather, friends hang out together and help each other with things. Which would make us friends too, right?"

"U-um…" Regulus stuttered, cheeks flushing pink as Serena's smile returned. She took that as a yes. He had been her first friend _ever_ , as far as she was concerned.

"Okay, then do you wanna hang out in the library with me? All my other friends have dates right now." Of course by all her friends Serena really just meant Xeno. Janie had descended into the dungeons after breakfast this morning and (although Serena didn't know it) was determinedly staying there to avoid his older brother, while her roommates lamented their lack of dates (save for Liz, who was gleefully feeding the fire despite not having a date herself because she thought they were too young for that drama anyway) and Serena didn't want to listen to it, and the girls she knew in other houses were out with friends.

Regardless, Regulus put on a show of scowling and rolling his eyes, and eventually, starting to walk away, replied, "well I don't have anything _better_ to do."

* * *

Xenophilius frowned, trudging up the stairs to the Ravenclaw dormitories where he was meeting Pandora. He was still holding the little flower bundle Serena had given him for him to give to Pandora- although he couldn't imagine what practical application these little flowers could possibly have- but he was very disappointed he hadn't been able to find the harrtap nest in time.

"A river," he said in response to the ridiculously easy riddle, frowning more at the fact he couldn't even have something complicated to occupy his mind for a moment.

Pandora was waiting on one of the chairs in the common room, fully immersed in a book. Despite the disappointment of the day, Xeno couldn't help but smile a bit.

"Hello Pandora," he said as he approached. She looked up with a smile, but it quickly faded into a confused frown.

"Are you okay, Xeno? You look sad," she said immediately, noticing that his usual glide-walk had been replaced by something closer to trudging despite the smile still on his face. She closed the book she was reading and stood, walking closer to him and looking concerned.

"Serena told me to give you these," he said, holding out the eclectic bundle of flowers, "but I don't have a present for you. I was trying to find a harrtap nest all last week, but they seem to be better hidden than I thought."

Pandora, who was luckily someone of the firm opinion that the thought mattered much more than the end result, beamed.

"They're beautiful Xeno," she praised sincerely, taking the flowers with a smile, "how about after lunch we go search for the harrtap nest together?"

* * *

Severus Snape was feeling rather torn.

On the one hand he was spending Valentines day with _Lily Evans_ , his best friend and secret crush.

On the other hand she was only spending time with him because they were best friends; this wasn't like a date or anything.

"Hey Sev," Lily said softly, pulling said boy out of his irritated musings. They had been sitting by the lake in silence, both lost in their own thoughts as they stared up at the blue sky. Severus looked over, giving the redhead his undivided attention. "I really miss Tuney. Do you think she'll ever forgive me for being a witch?"

This was something they hadn't talked about in quite a while. Ever since that first train ride, when Severus had called Petunia a filthy muggle and said that now that Lily had him she should just forget her… it had been a topic neither really brought up. Severus still thought Lily should just forget about her muggle sister and focus on what she had in the magical world, but since he already knew what kind of reply _that_ would get him he stopped and thought a moment.

"Of course," he lied blatantly, "she's a muggle who now has a connection to the magical world; she's jealous right now, but she'll get over it and see how cool having a magic family member can be." He paused, looking away to hide the scowl that he couldn't stop from spreading over his face. _He_ was here, _he_ would never leave her, was he not _good enough_? He couldn't help the last jab, "and if she never does, then she doesn't deserve you."

Severus, too busy scowling in the opposite direction, missed the smile Lily gave him for his thoughtfulness.

* * *

"Happy Valentines, Darlings!" Sirius Black called obnoxiously.

He was the first up this fine morning, even before Remus which was quite the feat, but he was determined to not stay the only one for long.

Peter awoke first, almost as soon as Sirius started talking, with a squeak and a flail that sent him off his bed as he tried to get away from the noise.

"Pete!" Sirius laughed, flopping onto said friend's bed so he could grin down at him from above. Peter scowled back, but that wrought only Sirius' bark-like laughter. "C'mon, I heard Remus groan over there, help me get him up," Sirius smirked, pulling Peter up before jumping to his feet as well.

They stalked over to the werewolf's bed, exchanging huge grins with every step. Once they were positioned on either side of their friend, who had buried himself under his blanket as best he could, Sirius held up three fingers. Silently counting down: three… two… one…

Then both lunged forwards, shoving their hands into the folds of blankets and tickling any part of Remus they could find.

Only a moment after, Remus, who had looked to be deeply sleeping, almost launched himself from the bed yelling, " _I'm awake I'm awake!_ "

A very loud moment passed, in which all three friends were laughing (though only two of their own accord) and Remus desperately tried to regain his breath and internally cursed himself for being so ticklish.

"One to go," Sirius grinned to the other two, who had regained composure. Peter nodded eagerly and got into position. Remus rolled his eyes, but couldn't quite keep the smile off of his face as they surrounded James' bed.

"Don't you tickle me," James' still half-asleep voice grumbled from where he had ensconced himself in his covers.

Sirius frowned for a moment- but only a moment. Then he grinned, wider than ever.

"Okay," he agreed cheerfully, turning around to climb onto his bed. Peter and Remus' eyes widened a moment before they scampered back.

"Sirius, I don't think-" Remus started, but was cut off my James who, curious about the lack of assault, had peeked from under his covers and found Sirius towering above him.

"Don't you-!"

But James was too late, even as he tried to extract himself from the cocoon of blankets in order to get away, Sirius had taken a flying leap from his bed and landed squarely on James' stomach. A loud groan cut off James' yelling as his friend nearly knocked the wind out of him, but seeing that Sirius was so busy laughing he took the opportunity to buck the other boy off of him and onto the floor.

It was Sirius' turn to groan, although the fall had been short and relatively painless, but James wasn't done. He still couldn't get out of his covers, but he _could_ still roll. So roll he did, right off of the bed and onto Sirius, yelling victoriously as he tried to crush the other boy into the floor through wiggling (as that was really all he could do at the moment).

"I'm betting on James," Remus said flippantly, surveilling the duo. "A box of Bertie Botts?" He offered, looking at Peter for confirmation.

"I'm not taking that bet," Peter sniggered, "James is a burrito right now and he's still beating Sirius!"

"Hey!" Sirius yelled, although it was muffled and sounded more like _HMMH_ because James' blanket was over his face. He flailed his arms around in an attempt to get his taller friend off, but it was ineffective.

Perhaps Pete had a point.

"Get off me, or I'm not gonna give you your present!" Sirius threatened, turning his head to the side so he could actually be understood. James paused a moment, gave one more pointed wiggle, and then rolled off. Sirius, while James began once more trying to get out of his blanket-roll, took the opportunity to sit on him while he reached under his bed for the so-called presents.

"Bertie Botts for Peter," Sirius grinned, tossing the large box to Peter. The smallest of their group dodged out of the way and let it slam to the ground, but he was grinning and squealing out thank-yous anyway. "Assorted chocolate stuff for Remus," Sirius added, pulling out a few smaller boxes (including chocolate frogs, chocolate cauldrons that _may_ have been spiked with a few potions, and chocolate wands) and throwing them in Remus' general direction. "And for you," Sirius grinned, leaning over to look James in the face from where he was still sitting on him, "I got such nice things." James, who had freed one hand (but not the arm), swatted at Sirius who laughed in return and dropped a small box of Bertie Botts, a case of chocolate cauldrons, and a few acid pops on his face.

"When I get out of here," James scowled, attempting to point threateningly with his single free hand, "I'm going to eat one of those chocolate cauldrons and then shove an acid pop down your throat."

"Sirius, get off James and help me pick up all the chocolate you scattered everywhere," Remus sighed, exasperated, as he and Peter moved to pick up the chocolate wands and chocolate frogs that had fallen out of their packages when they were tossed (Sirius _may_ have opened them- he had to check if the batches were poisoned). Sirius did stand up, but his idea of helping clean up was to steal and open up one of the chocolate wands and eat it while the others picked up. Other than James, who was slowly extracting himself from his blankets and was now only tied up from the waist down.

"Before I start dishing out comeuppance to Sirius," James drawled as he finally shucked the blanket off (Sirius scoffed; Remus may have muttered something like "big word" but no one could prove it), "I have my much _better_ gifts to give."

Sirius and James, last year, had turned every holiday into a competition. Because they both had more than enough money to do that with. Peter and Remus stayed out of it, and only gave gifts on actual gift-giving holidays like Christmas; mostly because neither of them exactly had money to burn. But they benefited from the competition anyway (Sirius and James both agreed that giving gifts to only _one_ friend was a faux pas indeed, after Sirius had explained exactly what faux pas meant), and tried not to feel guilty because the one time Remus had said it was too much and they shouldn't bother James had cited his noble heritage for a tendency to give to the needy (because, he said, everyone needs chocolate) and Sirius had offered to "balance it out" by cursing some of the candies.

So James, who had gone the more traditional Valentine's route, pulled three heart-shaped cards from under his bed.

They were each about the size of his torso, and classic Valentine's red with each recipient's name emblazoned across the front in shimmering gold.

When Peter was given his he pulled it open without hesitation, and let out a little shriek when red and gold flowers exploded from it.

Remus had taken a moment to look at it suspiciously (there was hardly ever a gift either Sirius or James gave without some harmless prank; he would definitely be checking the chocolate before he ate it too), and was glad he did when he saw what happened to Peter. He opened his with a pre-prepared wince so he didn't react when red and gold flowers also flew from his.

Sirius grinned as he pulled his open, but he quickly turned it into a highly offended look when _green and silver_ flowers exploded out instead.

James laughed loudly as his friends tried to brush the stuff off, only to find that wherever the flowers had landed there they would stay. It would last a few hours, unless one of them was able to perform an unsticking charm which was unlikely since they hadn't learned it yet.

Actually, James himself didn't really know how to undo the things. He'd had his mother help him with this present, and he wasn't ashamed to admit it.

At least, not silently.

If any of his _friends_ asked, on the other hand, he would just pretend to withhold the information.

James, as he munched on one of the chocolate cauldrons Sirius had given him, decided that he probably didn't have to shove an acid pop down Sirius' throat today because leaving him covered in Slytherin-colored _flowers_ seemed to be punishment enough.

And then, as he reached for another sweet, he caught sight of his fingers.

Which were now smurf-blue.

"SIRIUS!"

* * *

AN: How do you guys like Reg so far? I'm trying to make him awkward. If you guys were wondering, at this point he feels nothing more than friendship towards Serena, it's just that he's never actually had a friend by choice before (all the others are more like politically-conscious decisions than friends) and he isn't sure what to actually do. We'll see about later.

Also, how about Snape? He really cares about Lily, but… he's almost obsessive. That's what I'm going for at least. How am I doing?

And I finally got some straight-up marauder shenanigans in here! Yay!


	19. Chapter 19

**IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: This will be my last chapter for a while. A little over a year and a half in fact. I won't be able to update in that time, but rest assured that this has not been abandoned, just put on hold while I'm out of reach.**

* * *

"I thought you thought Hufflepuff was a house of duffers," Serena stated without any malicious intentions when Regulus walked into the nearly-deserted library. Serena and madam Pince had been the only occupants before the yellow-clad Slytherin had walked in.

"They are," Regulus answered promptly, adjusting his black top hat with the Hufflepuff house insignia decorating the side, "but better them than Gryffindor." Oh. He was probably putting so much effort into supporting Hufflepuff because his brother, Sirius, was on the Gryffindor team and they didn't get along so well.

Ah, yes, Serena had almost forgotten. It was March tenth, the day of the fourth quidditch match of the year: Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor. That was why the library was so deserted; the match would start in about twenty minutes. Serena didn't put much stock in sports in general. She did see the benefit physically, and the rules were actually fun to learn for the more complicated sports, but she didn't see the entertainment value of simply watching other people throw things at each other and through hoops. That was why she was in the library rather than out in the stands with nearly everyone else in the school. Since coming to Hogwarts, she hadn't gone to a single game, and she wasn't planning on going any time soon.

"Are you going to watch the match?" Regulus asked as Serena returned to reading the book on dragons- her latest interest.

"Not planning on it. Why?" She replied, not glancing up. Regulus obviously was going to watch; he was a huge fan, and had said multiple times that he was going to try out for the Slytherin team his second year.

"Just wondering," Regulus said after a moment's pause, studying the Hufflepuff scarf he had on. Even if she had been planning on coming to the game, it's not like he would have sat near her or anything; he couldn't, no way could he be publicly affiliated with Serena Wendal. Narcissa might have, though.

"I'll see you after the game, then," she said distractedly, scanning over the information about Hungarian Horntails. He had an essay due the next day, and she had agreed to read over it later. He had, of course, written it all, she was sure. Unlike Janie, who had asked (read: bargained unnecessarily) for her help the day before.

"… Bye," he said abruptly, turning on his heel and marching out of the library without another word.

A usual Regulus exit.

* * *

"Good luck guys," Remus said to his two quidditch-playing friends as they approached the lockers, where the group of four would have to split. He wasn't actually much into quidditch, and would usually choose reading a book over playing or watching someone else play any day of the week, but ever since he'd become friends with James and Sirius he hadn't missed a match. At first because they insisted he needed some fresh air ("that musty, dusty library can't be good for your lungs") and what better time to bond with friends than a quidditch match? And then, when Sirius and James both made the team at the beginning of second year, he was still planning to attend to cheer them on, but Sirius made absolutely sure by going on about a five-minute lament about Remus being his "good luck charm".

His friends were idiots.

"Yeah, good luck!" Peter agreed somewhat more enthusiastically. The poor boy was a mediocre flyer at best, but he absolutely _loved_ quidditch matches, whether he was participating or just watching.

"Luck? Sirius, do we need luck?" James asked, raising a disbelieving eyebrow.

"Against Hufflepuff? Nah, Mate, we've already got more than enough with these two cheering us on," Sirius chuckled. Remus decided not to point out that last year Hufflepuff had neatly creamed _all_ of the other houses and won the Quidditch Cup with no contest.

Idiots. But, loveable idiots.

With those parting words, a wink from Sirius, and one last grin-accompanied-by-hair-ruffle from James, the group split into two.

"About time you two got here," Brandon Raltz sneered at them. He was a chaser, and although he was a seventh year and thought he _should_ be team captain, he was not.

James and Sirius grinned toothily back at him.

They did not get along with Brandon Raltz. He was one of the overt supporters of Blahrty's ideas, and had been one of the main offenders who harassed that one girl (Serabella or something like that) for standing up for werewolves. They hadn't really cared at the time, as it didn't affect them, but after they found out Remus was a Werewolf… there had been more than a few unkind pranks directed at him and his friends.

"Get a move-on you two! Robes on! Brooms up! Hup Hup!" That excitable fellow was sixth year Hamish Frater, the actual captain of the team.

"Yes sir!" They chorused, snapping a salute and flouncing off to get their quidditch robes on.

Ten minutes later, when all seven players had arrived and were dressed for quidditch, Hamish paced in front of his line of six players.

"C'mon captain, it's just Hufflepuff," Sirius chuckled, he and James sharing a mirth-filled look.

" _And_ one of their beaters is a girl," James added, sniggering. It wasn't that he was sexist or anything (not that he would admit) it's just that scientific fact said that men were better beaters. Obviously. Women could be great seekers and chasers and keepers, in his mind, but not beaters.

Marie Rollbak, Gryffindor's _female_ chaser, gave Hamish a pointed offended look. He didn't notice, though, because he was too busy staring incredulously at the two second years he'd let on his team (darn them; if they weren't so naturally talented he would _not_ have let them near the pitch. They had horrible sportsmanship).

"Houses don't matter on the pitch! And neither does gender!" He snapped out, looking distraught, "in life or death situations survival is all that matters!"

The two second years rolled their eyes. Life or death situations? Ridiculous! This was _quidditch_ , a _game_ , and anyway, no matter the situation a girl was a girl and a Hufflepuff was a _Hufflepuff_.

They really had nothing to worry about.

* * *

A week later, James and Sirius could still be heard cursing the name of Hufflepuff (and specifically their beater Gena Heartford) in the middle of the night.

The game had been an absolute disaster.

It had started out well enough, with Gryffindor scoring the first two goals, which is probably what lulled James and Sirius into such a confident state. Well, even more confident than they had been before.

Those two goals were all they got.

In the end, Hamish was collapsed on the ground out of despair, Marie had hugged Gena, and Gena was confused at the gesture but too busy apologizing profusely as Sirius was carted off the field to really ask about it.

Sirius was in the hospital for three days, put there by the girl Hufflepuff beater that he and James had been mocking right before the game.

The four boys were currently in the hospital wing, listening to James and Sirius rant alternatively about the unfairness of it all and how Gena must be half mountain troll. Sirius wasn't the one they were visiting, though, he had gotten out four days ago; they were currently gathered around Remus. It was the day of the full moon, and he was feeling awful as ever.

It was also past visiting hours. Remus' three friends had snuck in under the invisibility cloak to keep him company before he had to go to the shrieking shack.

"You know," Remus interrupted calmly, almost sneering; this was getting very irritating. At first it had been kind of funny that Gena had so thoroughly destroyed his friend's views of the world, but instead of gracefully accepting their errors, they were just going on and _on_ about it. "There might be a lesson in all this, that you could probably get if you'd stop _complaining_ so much."

He was going to blame the lack of tact on the full moon that would be rising soon.

James and Sirius looked at him incredulously, and he stared back completely deadpan.

Peter looked around nervously as one of the other patients coughed; he was the lookout after all.

James opened his mouth to retort, but stopped, considering. Weren't he and Sirius looking for someone? A little blond girl, who probably knew Remus' secret? Hadn't they immediately discounted everyone that wasn't Gryffindor? What was it that Hamish had said… " _in life or death situations survival is all that matters!"_ So maybe their mystery girl wasn't Gryffindor at all. She could be Hufflepuff, or Ravenclaw, or even Slyth- Nah, he wasn't willing to make that concession. But she could be Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw.

Maybe they needed to look a bit deeper.

Sirius did not have the same revelation.

"She hit me with a bludger! What am I supposed to learn from that?" Sirius demanded, louder than probably advised.

"Reflexes, probably," Remus answered without hesitation.

Peter turned to watch the escalating fight, attempting to shush Sirius but only succeeding in making him louder.

"I don't see a single thing that teaches me!" Sirius scowled.

"Probably because of the head trauma," Remus once again sniped.

Sirius opened his mouth to say something else, Remus raised an eyebrow in challenge, Peter's eyes ping-ponged between the two, and James desperately tried to get Sirius to _quiet down you berk_ -

" _What_ are you three doing here?" Madam Pomfrey asked in a sort of hushed whisper that gave all four boys the impression that if it were not _the-devils-hour_ O'clock she would have been much louder.

"Uh…" All three boys replied smartly, looking with wide eyes. Sirius was the first to recover.

"We're keeping Remus company," he grinned cheekily. Madam Pomfrey looked at them in disbelief, taking in the matching grins of James and Sirius and the way the other two were avoiding eye contact.

"They know?" She asked, as much to herself as to Remus. He looked guilty, but nodded. "And you came to keep him company?" She asked sternly to the other boys. James and Sirius each gave a decisive nod, and Peter, still staring at the ground, nodded rapidly. "You all must be very careful with this information-" she started lecturing.

"We've known for months," James interrupted.

"Yeah, if we were going to tell someone we would have already," Sirius agreed. They had also snuck in to keep Remus company before, it's just that they had always seen her coming and thrown on the invisibility cloak those times so they weren't caught.

They realized that, perhaps, that wasn't the best way to get out of trouble, because Madam Pomfrey looked like she had swallowed a lemon.

Then she sighed, and brought a hand to her temple as if she was getting a headache, and finally looked at the three that weren't her charges-

"Go on you three, back to your dorm," she said wryly.

She couldn't very well punish them for helping their friend, now could she?

* * *

AN: Love you all, see you in a year and a half!


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